M6s lose 4-1 to Oxford 9: "We were all at 6s and 7s"

It was a funny old week. As I stood in front of the team to give my prematch motivational chat, it was all a bit confusing. The team were mostly the familiar bunch I play with each week as the Mighty 7s, but I was captain of the beautiful 6s. We were all taking one for the club! I, for one, was feeling guilty for deserting my team.

It was great to welcome back Tyler and Coops to the team, and Kevin and Craig were great additions to our back line. Oxford were clearing expecting a strong Sonning 6s side and had packed their squad with some talent.

But first blood went to Sonning. A strong attack from our midfield of Jon, Owen, Dean and Tyler saw us quickly into the D and after a touchline tussle, Michael tipped the ball into the back of the goal. We dared to believe. The game was end to end stuff and Oxford had a lot of the ball. At the back, Warbs, Kevin and Craig, with Andy just in front came under a lot of pressure, but we resisted and our counter-attacks stretched their defences. Eventually however Oxford broke back to even the game and shortly after, despite a valiant attempt by Craig to smother the ball on the goal line, we ended the half at 2-1 down. It's never good to be behind at half-time, but we believed that we could still take this game. Come on the Ning.

There was an increased sense of urgency on the Oxford side in the second half and they had definitely upped their game. Our forwards, Michael, Jay and Coops continued to threaten and as a team we pushed higher up the field to make the decisive breakthrough. But Oxford proved too strong and took a third goal. But I have to give credit to our defence. Rhys and the lads faced 5 or 6 short corners in the game, and only conceded one goal.

I was carrying an injury and then we lost Craig, prone on the floor with a pulled hamstring - a bit dramatic and once again in the post match analysis, the team preyed on the weak and delivered the DOTD decision. We battled on and looked to have a creditable result. I haven't mentioned Jay or Chris, who both had good games and kept on running to the end.

And then, my DOTD nomination. Clearly from the sideline we heard the ref's alarm go off, but apparently the ref used his discretion to allow Oxford a final attack! Unbelievable. 4-1 and then the whistle blows.

This was a good performance by the team and the result flatters the Oxford side and in my opinion could have gone either way.

MOTM: Michael (Goal scorer and great effort)
DOTD: Craig (Lying down on the job)

A shout out to the 7s who played for the 7s. A brilliant 9-2 revenge win against Tring. Proud of you guys and wish I had been part of it.

Next week - who knows - we could be paying anywhere - 6s are home to Newbury and 7s are away to Aylesbury.