Oxhey Jets 2-1 Broadfields United

The Fighting Cocks go down to a double from the league’s leading goal scorer, Lewis Putman.

Before the start of proceedings, we knew the major threats that Oxhey posed were with their attacking players and that if we were to get anything from the game we would need to keep each of them quiet throughout the fixture.

Things started off brightly in the game and we enjoyed some good spells of possession before allowing Oxhey to take more of a foothold in the match, committing fouls in the middle of the park and allowing Oxhey to deliver a number of set pieces into the box. The Jets skipper, Stead, was pulling all the strings for them in the middle of the park and was causing problems for the Broadfields midfield.

The match began to even out and saw a couple of good chances not taken by either side. First up we had a good opportunity midway through the half as Anthony Thomas had beaten the offside trap with the Oxhey centre backs standing with their hands in the air waiting for an offside decision which wasn’t coming but, with just the keeper to beat, dragged his shot just wide of the post much to the Jets’ relief.

Next up was Oxhey’s turn to attack only this time Matt Faley stood in the forwards way and was out off of his line to make a terrific save down to his left from close range, preventing a sure goal. By the end of the half it was all Broadfields attacking with Billie Busari enjoying himself down our left. For all the attacking and possession there was no end product with the small number of wayward shots we did pull off, these rarely tested the Oxhey goalkeeper, Partington.

Just minutes after the restart, Oxhey found themselves in the lead. Much like on Saturday we were still in the dressing room and were duly punished for it. A long ball down the right was pulled back by the winger who managed to square the ball to the edge of the 6-yard box leaving the forward with an easy finish passed Matt Faley.

For the early part of the second half the defence was kept busy dealing with wave after wave of Oxhey attacks, and Faley did well to keep the score to one. That was until the 67th minute where another long ball over the top split the defence in two with the forward quick in pursuit managing to get a hold of the ball and slot pass Faley to double his tally and the Oxhey lead on the evening.

Around 10 minutes later there was a moment of brilliance from David Pitt who managed to find the top corner of the net from the edge of the box leaving the Oxhey goalkeeper no chance and giving the rest of the team a lift and the confidence that they could square up the game. Over the last part of the game there were a handful of chances, the best of which was a run down the left by Pitt who pulled the ball back across to the edge the area with Busari running onto it, but his shot was skied over the crossbar. Our final chance of the evening fell to Pitt again who almost scored an identical goal to his first but saw this one go just wide of the angle.

Unfortunate not to come away from the game with at least a point on the evening but there were still positives to take from the game against a side that, come the end of the season, will be towards the top.

Man of the match on the evening went to Julian Smith who had a solid game slotting in at the back. Sadly Nat Lewis-Robinson had to leave the field injured with a recurrence of his knee injury from last season that saw him miss a large portion of the campaign which adds to our ever-growing injury hit list. Hopefully we will see him back on the pitch soon and the injury isn’t as bad as first feared.

Back to Tithe Farm Saturday as we welcome Aylesbury Vale Dynamos who will be out for revenge after our meeting in the FA Vase earlier on in the campaign

Team: Faley ©, Lewis-Robinson (B. Smith), Watson, S. Blennerhassett, Wharton, J. Smith, Benavides (Mattan), Anderson-Richards, Thomas (Pitt), Richards, Busari

Subs not used: Gardner, Davey