South Berkshire 1st XI 3 – 4 Sonning 1st XI

In a breathless encounter at Cantley Park, Sonning took themselves three points clear of South Berks and Wallingford 1st XIs by breaking the curse of a fixture that has been unkind to them in recent seasons. It was a strong team performance, but it took the entire 70 minutes for them to emerge victorious, with the Nick Leach winner going in after the final whistle had gone.

With Neil Pursell and Ian Finlayson both unavailable, Jonty Rider made 2 changes to the squad that had beaten Oxford 2nd XI the week prior. Long-time club man Chris Hinton returned to bolster the midfield, with Ben Sully returning in goal.

From the first whistle it was clear that Sonning were carrying form from the last few weeks. They penned back their opponents, who didn’t really get out of their half for the opening 10 minutes. Sonning couldn’t find a breakthrough, but looked comfortable when defending the breaks that South Berks were able to launch via their aerial threat.

Sonning struck first through a Noel Plant deflection. Leach found space right in the middle of the pitch after Sonning had made several quick transfers around the back to stretch their opponents’ defence. He picked out Plant making a neat lead to tip in just in front of the South Berks keeper. 1-0.

South Berks equalised quickly, before Sonning re-took then extended their lead. First Leach got on the scoresheet, converting well from a penalty corner, before Plant scored his second of the game and probably his best goal of the season so far, the assist this time from Ian Gallagher. South Berks’ keeper saved his first effort, but could only parry the ball back towards the top of the circle, where Plant was quicker than his man, and showed great strength and composure to match his work rate.

3-1 at half time, but with everything to play for, South Berks found their way back into the game shortly after the break. First a cheap turnover in midfield was quickly converted, before an equaliser came after a spell of pressure to make it 3-3.

With the momentum against them, Sonning did well to hold out for the next 10-15mins. South Berks moved the ball quickly, and won themselves a few penalty corners that went unconverted. One of these was kept out by Sully in a possible contender for save of the season, down low to his stick side. It looked sure to nestle in the bottom corner, but seeing their keeper keep them in the game spurred Sonning into a renewed urgency that ultimately won them the points.

In the last minute, Gallagher and Terry linked up well, high on the left wing and Gallagher showed great stick skills to find a planted foot and win a penalty corner. Sonning’s conversion rate this season has probably been comfortably above 50%, but as the full time whistle went the pressure ramped up. The only people on the pitch not affected however were probably Gallagher, Terry and Leach. Injection, stop, conversion could not have been cleaner. The South Berks keeper could do nothing to stop Leach’s effort. 4-3 it finished.

Next up Sonning host West Hampstead at The Doom Bar Arena, where they’ll be hoping to carry on their run. #COTN

Squad: Ben Sully, Jonty Rider (c), Nick Leach, Pat Thomas, Sam Terry, Ed Williamson, Callum Richardson, Jon Sharp, Huw Thomas, Noel Plant, Ian Gallagher, James Manser, James Lockhart, Chris Hinton
Goalscorers: Nick Leach (2), Noel Plant (2)
MOTM: Noel Plant
DOTD: Jon Sharp (very harsh!)