Sonning 1st XI 5 - 0 Oxford Hawks 3rd XI

Sonning began the day with a slightly changed squad, with Adam Pusey, Matt Sloper, Stephen Ridley and David Painter coming back in, while Matt Poulton, Sam Terry, Tom Sampson and Mark Dobbie were all absent. Also, skipper Paul Brown made his first start in 4 weeks since being injured in the opening fixture at Marlow.

The game opened up with a period of pressure from the away side. They spent 5-10 minutes penning Sonning into their own half, playing the ball around well at the back, but struggling to create anything concrete. Dan Anderson, playing at right back, and Matt Sloper on the left in particular were pressurised constantly in their defensive corners, but did well to break down attacks before a final pass could be played.

Sonning played on the break, and look dangerous, playing fairly directly and at pace, and it wasn't long before they got in front, when Jonny Partenheimer slotted home following a passing move down the right. Stephen Ridley doubled their lead just a few minutes later, attacking from the left wing and slotting home from a tight angle, somehow able to find a gap at the near post. 2-0.

Sonning were then able to assert themselves in a much more positive way with a 2-goal cushion. They began to dominate the central midfield space through Chris Hinton and Ollie Waddington and their wide players were able to stretch the game. They got their 3rd goal through Jonathan Sharp, who followed in a Partenheimer strike and beat the last defender to a loose ball, after the keeper got pads to the initial shot. 3-0.

After half time, the third goal killed the game off a little bit. Sonning lost their intensity for a while and the game became a bit scrappy. Their opposition went down to 10 men for a couple of spells following green cards, but Sonning were unable to exploit their numerical advantage.

The 4th goal was pretty slick however when it did come, James Lockhart picking up on the half way line and carrying through a couple of tired attempted challenges to find Sharp on the left side of the D. Sharp's lead in behind the Hawks defence created a huge amount of space and he was able to pick out Jack Mason on the right post for the simplest of tap-ins. 4-0.

Partenheimer got his 2nd goal on the day, and 5th for the season in the last few minutes, to add a bit of sheen onto a strong but still incomplete 70 minute performance by Sonning. They'll be pleased with some of their attacking work, as well as another clean sheet for Alasdair Allan in goal, but on another day a performance this dominant could, and possibly should have been double figures for a side hoping to compete for honours come the end of the season, and they will need to be more clinical next week, with an away trip to high flying Milton Keynes on the cards.

Goalscorers: Jack Mason, Jonny Partenheimer 2, Stephen Ridley, Jonathan Sharp
MOTM: James Lockhart
DOTD: James Lockhart