Wycombe 1st XI 5 -5 Sonning 1st XI

In what probably turned out to be their most entertaining game of their 2014/15 season, Sonning knew their objective: Win to stay in MBBO Prem 1... Simple as that. Any other result would probably result in them sitting in a relegation position come the end of March, and with several play-offs in higher leagues to come in April, risk a month of waiting to find out their fate.

As it turned out, this was to be the case, with Staines defeating Marlow in their last game, and Sonning only leaving Cressex with a point. That being said, as the adage goes, Sonning went down swinging, with arguably their best attacking play of the season leading to an exciting clash against local friends and rivals, Wycombe.

Wycombe scored very early to go 1-0 up, and had a 2nd goal disallowed shortly after. Sonning were on the back foot, but looked dangerous on the break. Despite the Wycombe pressure, they actually broke even in their first foray into Wycombe circle, with Adam 'Late to the Party' Pusey chucking a naughty little aerial from the inside left channel to Huw Thomas on the top of the circle, who had peeled of the last man to find space before taking one touch and hitting the bouncing ball on the half volley past the stunned Wycombe keeper. 1-1. It could have very quickly been 2-1 just moments later, except that Colm Hanlon, returning to the 1st XI after a year in the cold, put what can honestly only be described as an 'absolute ****ing sitter' wide of the far post, after fine work from David Painter, Thomas and Pusey on left once again.

Despite the setback, the pattern of play continued and Sonning were 3-1 up within 10 minutes from here. First, Callum Richardson slapped home from the top of the circle after Lockhart beat his man and cut back from the right side baseline, then Hanlon made amends with a snap-shot on the turn from the top of the circle, too hot for the Wycombe keeper to get down to. Wycombe scored a late goal shortly before half time to stay within reaching distance, through their ridiculously good young drag flicker, who put too much pace on his low flick for the cumbersome Alasdair Allan to get near. Matt Sloper had batted away several earlier efforts, looking like a young Kevin Pieterson in the process, to save his keepers' blushes up until this point, but could do nothing about that one. 2-3 to Sonning at the break.

In the 2nd half, Wycombe started like a freight train, and fulfilled their early promise to put Sonning to the sword. They have an array of very quick and skilful forwards, who tore Sonning to ribbons for 20 minutes. The equaliser was a quick break down the left wing, with a cheeky dinked finish over a grounded Allan... The other two goals, I'm not actually too sure about to be honest. It all happened too quickly, like a well executed street mugging!!... But I do know that despite making several excellent saves in the half, Allan was forced to pick the ball out twice more in quick succession as the game went 5-3 in favour of the hosts.

Sonning are made of sterner stuff these days, and they doubled their efforts to fight back once again. The pressure was building after Huw Thomas managed to get two reverse strikes away, only to see them repelled by the Wycombe keeper, but eventually the away side got their rewards. First Jonathan Sharp unleashed a low drag flick at a penalty corner won once again by Pusey, before Richardson scored his second, a near identical goal to his first, as he slapped in first time from a pinpoint cut-back. 5-5.

With a couple of minutes left, the game continued at a frantic pace, but ultimately devoid of the quality to put it to bed, and so it finished honours even; a fair result after a game that probably resembled two punch-drunk fighters slugging at each other deep into the 12th round. Not all quality, all of the time, but at least the crowd got their money's worth! Anyway, as they say... "Last game of the season, Brent. Can't hold anything back now!"

Goalscorers: Colm Hanlon, Callum Richardson (2), Jonathan Sharp, Huw Thomas
MOTM: Huw Thomas
DOTD: Colm Hanlon