Witney & District Football Reports - Week 16

Post-Christmas chaos creates results carnage in first week back!
Welcome back.

In the first week back from the Christmas break, the form book was turned on its head in some of the leagues as teams recovered from their extended time off over the festive period. Three of the five pre-Christmas league leaders played and two of them lost, whilst two sides rooted to the bottom of their respective divisions came away with victories against high flying opposition. As if that wasn’t enough, we have two new league leaders as well.

Ready.... here we go!

Premier Division
Whilst in the top division results may have been said to go in line with the form book at least, there are now just two points separating the top three sides and new league leaders too. Charlbury have reached the summit, thanks to the absence of a game for Aston. They managed four different goal scorers as they put four past second bottom Kirtlington. Warwick Tompkins, Craig McCallum, Josh Hunt and Steve Fitzgerald all helped Charlbury come away with the three points. Ross Gray and Sam Fowler responded for Kirtlington as it finished 4-2.

FC Hollybush remain in hot pursuit as they defeated Minster Lovell. Johnny Fletcher scored for Minster Lovell but Chris Hirons Dan Bishop and Dan Brearley all scored one each in their 3-1 win.

Hailey jumped three league places into fourth as they defeated Carterton Town A. Two goals each for Tom Gregory and Jack Wood took all three points for Hailey. John Sword responded for Carterton Town.

Division One
Witney Royals would have known that victories were critical to maintaining their Division One status but seeing as top of the table Moreton Rangers were the first visitors to Burwell Meadow in 2019, it certainly wouldn’t have been expected that Royals would pick up their first win of the season. But that they did as David Cross’ double was enough to secure all three points. Josh Burford replied but Moreton suffered their third defeat of the season.

Stonesfield took full advantage of Moreton’s slip by hitting the net six times to regain their league leader’s status. Sam Bodinham and James Little both scored twice to get Stonesfield well on the way. Reece Bayliss and Peter Searle scored one each to complete the scoring for the away side. Chris Adams, Jason Blackman and John Ayres scored one each to make it 6-3 at full time.

Middle Barton joined the promotion fight by coming away with a narrow 1-0 win over Combe. A Dan Taylor own goal was enough to separate the teams. Middle Barton are now just three points off Moreton Ranger and have two games in hand.

Levi Steele and Jim Littlewood both scored one each as Milton won out in the mid-table battle with Bourton Rovers. Lee Mosson replied for Bourton but Milton won 2-1, keeping them within touching distance of the promotion fight.

Division Two
Whilst there were only three games in Division Two, there were still 21 goals, and three victories by no more than a goal in each game.

Aston Reserves and Kingham played out a 9 goal thriller as Aston picked up only their second win of the season. A Gaz Price hat-trick wasn’t enough for Kingham as they looked to keep themselves in the promotion scrap. Dan Davies even added a fourth but goals from Jamie Austin, Matt Brown, an unknown goal scorer and a Dave Rabbich double gave Aston a deserved three points.

Minster Lovell Reserves missed out on the opportunity to go top as they slipped to defeat against Ducklington. Russel Whitlock, Josh White and Luke Hessey all scored once for Minster but two penalties, converted by Ed Smith and Josh Hartley respectively along with goals from Ady Kew and Harvey Butler gave Duck all three points and sent them fifth.

Siege FC closed the gap on the three sides above them as they beat Brize in another tight game. They won 3-2 as Ben Brown and John White scored for Brize. But a Gerard Morgan double and a Karl Dodds effort gave Siege all three points.

Division Three
Bletchington Reserves continued with their good form since consolidating their teams into one. Their 2-1 victory over Hook Norton allowed them to leapfrog their opponents into fourth place. Jay Mair scored for Hook Norton but Jonathan Watts and Richie Wells’ goals took home the three points for Bletch.

Promotion chasing Carterton Town B and Spartan Reserves both managed to keep clean sheets, and score a few goals of their own as they kept their title pursuits well on track. Spartan beat Chipping Norton Town Reserves 5-0 thanks to goals from Donny Henderson Sowerby and doubles from Arrun White and Gavin Kominek. Spartan are only behind FC Mills on goal difference now and with a game in hand.

Carterton went one better as they beat Witney Royals 6-0. Tyler Webster, Phil Stannard, Ben Powell, Matt Mills, Danny Haining and Dan Chillington all scored one each to give them a five point cushion at the top of the league.

Division Four
Second bottom Spartan Rangers A managed to stun league leaders Stonesfield Reserves by recording their second away win of the year. Mev Gundem recorded a brace and was assisted on the scoresheet by James Phillips and Matt Townsend. Liam Harris replied for Stonesfield.

Kingham Reserves missed the chance to get within three points of the league leaders by dropping points away to Brize Reserves. Darren Light and Ross Parker scored for Brize but they were cancelled out by Darius Hodaei and Adrian Williams’ goals as it finished 2-2.

Bampton United Reserves also dropped points in their 0-0 draw with Wootton Reserves. A victory would have sent them second but the point leaves them level on points with third place Milton and a point behind second placed Kingham Reserves.
Chadlington Reserves benefitted from the sides above them dropping points as they closed to within a point of second place with victory over Eynsham SSC Reserves.

Ellis Godin was the pick of the bunch with a hat-trick as jack Legg, Alfie Peachey and Matt Chadwick all got one each. Marcus Owsnett and Keiran Clarke replied for Eynsham but it finished 6-2 to the visitors.

FC Ascott won the Ascott derby for the second time this season with a 3-1 victory over FC Ascott Rangers. Jay Whelan, Jason Bufton and Gary O’Donovan all scored for FC Ascott. Steve Wilkes provided a consolation goal for Rangers.