Sonning 1 v Aylesbury 1

Some general poor availability and a late dropout meant we had a Saturday morning panic to get a team out. Some furious activity on WhatsApp and even a callout to Nick Salter to see if his stitches would hold up for 70 minutes gave us a quite capable team in the end. However, the game was all over as a contest whilst we were still trying to remember each other's names - 3 down in the first ten minutes has got to be some kind of record. In fact, O'Mara was keen to point out that he only got on the pitch at 3-0, so effectively he was claiming a draw.

We managed to get through the half without further embarrassment (apart from Toon topping three short corners in a row) and regrouped. Some slight tactical rearrangements, now we knew what everyone was capable of (or not as the case maybe) lead to use being a lot more solid in the second half. We got our new recruits Dan & Alex on the ball in positions they could actually play in and started moving the ball about more efficiently. Aylesbury had a good flicker and got another from a short corner, Pondy managing to avoid the ball Matrix style, whilst he would have saved it if it hadn't moved a muscle.

So, to be fair, the only reason I am bothering to write this report is for the moment of brilliance near then end. Our best move of the season came with about five minutes left, the ball coming out of defence, I think Salter was involved somewhere, the ball found its way to Elliott who still had a third of the pitch to run. He took off at breakneck speed, looking like he was going to run off the end of the pitch as usual. However, somewhere he found all this composure, stopped, sat the keeper down, and dinked it over him into the empty net....and then got clattered - a truly sublime finish

Motm Bambi & Elliott for his goal line heroics (at either end)
DOTD Pat - for wearing Slides in December