Oxford Hawks 2nd XI 3 – 0 Sonning 1st XI

Sonning travelled to Oxford with their squad ravaged by injury, missing 4 regularly starting XI players. Recent arrival Ben Johnson made a start in midfield along with Callum Richardson who is now pushing for a starting berth every week, and Ollie Waddington, who stepped up from centre back as Sonning switched formation to combat the Hawks attacking threat.

The strategy paid dividends in the early encounters, and arguably Sonning had the better of the early stages. Their packed out midfield cut out the central attacking channels, and Huw Thomas and Ian Gallagher worked tirelessly up front as Sonning set their half court press. Both full-backs were able to snuff out Hawks’ wing play, with man of the match Sam Terry beating his man to the long ball time and time again on the right, really making the most of his muscular frame, while Matt Sloper was ably supported by Johnson on the left.

It was to Sonning and James Lockhart that the early chance fell, when a crash ball from Gallagher bounced to him from a defenders stick. The ball at waist height and with his bag to goal, Lockhart slapped a reverse volley, which flat-footed the Hawks keeper, but eventually crept inches wide and into the side netting.

With that early warning, Hawks really upped the tempo and put Sonning on the back foot. They won a series of penalty corners, which in the reverse fixture they were despatching clinically. Luckily for Sonning today this was not the case, and Sonning came away unscathed.
Despite this Sonning were down 1-0 at the break, as just before the whistle went, Hawks found something special to beat Ali Allan in goal, with a slick passing move finished by a tight angled reverse shot into an open net with Allan grounded and without a chance.

In the second half Sonning tired, became a bit penned in, and eventually the gaps began to show. They went down to 10 men after an exhausted Waddington put in a late challenge on a Hawks forward. He got his shot away, saved by Allan, so there was no penalty corner, but Waddington got his marching orders. In the next five minutes, Sonning went another goal down, not dissimilar to the first, with Hawks attackers overrunning the Sonning lines and passing the ball into the net.

Back up to 11 men, Sonning began to compete again, although they just couldn’t find the final ball to create concrete chances. They were really unlucky to concede the third and final goal towards the end, but once again it took a very good Hawks move to do it. 3-0 it finished, and deservedly so to a really professional Hawks side who are now all but assured promotion in to South Prem 2.

Holding their head high, but back at risk this week as relegation rivals OMT (16pts) bagged a win at Wallingford, Sonning (15pts) now face PHC Chiswick in what is looking likely to be a really tough encounter at the Doom Bar arena, with Chiswick looking like they’re back in the groove after an 8-0 demolition of Marlow. With struggling Marlow (9pts) hosting 11th placed Staines (15pts) on the last day of the season, it looks like Sonning will need another win from their next two games if they are to stay in the league. Squeeky bum time indeed! #COTN!

MOTM: Sam ‘The Biceps’ Terry
DOTD: Ollie ‘The Lumberjack’ Waddington