Witney & District Reports - Week 23

Charity Cup Quarter Final
The Witney and District’s pursuit of the Charity Cup goes on for yet another season but not before the highest scoring penalty shootout that a Witney and District side have been part of had taken place. That small honour goes to Hailey FC who faced off against Watlington, looking for a place in the final four.
Hailey couldn’t have hoped for a better first half, despite conceding, they raced into a 3-1 lead at the break, thanks to goals from Freddie Buckingham, Jack Wood and Travis O’Connor. However, Watlington were much improved in the second half, scoring two without reply to ensure a further 30 minutes were required. The deadlock couldn’t be broken in extra time and to penalties it went. The shootout required some players to take more than one penalty as the tense battle rolled on and on but eventually Watlington held their nerve to prevail 19-18 on penalties to break the hearts of the men in green and white.
Premier Division
Only one fixture could survive the week-long torrid weather conditions in the top division, as Carterton Rangers and Stonesfield managed to get a game played down at the ever reliable pitches of Monahan Way. Still, a hotly anticipated fixture as fourth played second, with both sides searching for the three points which would apply more pressure on fixtureless Carterton FC at the top of the table.
Rangers, trying to make home advantage count, scored through Ben Pearce but Stonesfield hit back thanks to regular goal scorer Raffy Rice and it was down to Jordan Newman to steal the three points for the visitors as Stonesfield came through for the 2-1 win. The win leaves them just two points behind Carterton after the same number of games and with identical goal difference.

Watts Junior Cup Second Round
If there was one consistent theme throughout the second round, first leg ties that took place at the weekend, it was the one sided nature of almost all the final scores, with only one side winning by less than three goals.
Biggest winners of the weekend were Enstone who battered their division one counterparts Hailey Reserves 7-0. Andy McCabe and Nathan Bott both scored two each to set Enstone well on the way to victory. Dan Bott scored one himself and further goals from Kieran Watts and Dan Newman have left Hailey with a mountain to climb in the second leg next week.
Matt Chadwick scored a hat-trick as Chadlington secured a six goal advantage heading into their second leg against Carterton Town B. Dave Wanless proved he can score goals anywhere as he notched a double for Town but Chadlington turned the screw with single goals from Lee Woodward, Ewan Thomas and Daniel Cleevely. Alfie Peachey scored two of his own to round off the scoring as Chadlington finished the game as 8-2 victors.
It was a five star performance from Spartan Rangers Reserves as they stormed past Brize Norton. A Dave Cross hat-trick placed Rangers firmly in control in the 5-0 win. Daz Craig and Ben Hardcastle’s goals have Spartan with one foot in the next round ahead of the return fixture next week.
The score line deceives somewhat as Hook Norton’s 4-1 victory over Ducklington could be considered a little flattering for the hosts. Jay Mair put Hook Norton in front before Tyler Bradley doubled their advantage. Ducklington’s misfortunes escalated after that as they managed to put the ball into their own net before a goalkeeping error gifted a goal for Sam Nelson’s first goal for Hook Norton. Ady Kew did manage to pull one back for Duck to give them a glimmer of hope for the second leg.
Bourton Rovers hold the shortest advantage but still have a two goal cushion over Siege FC after recording a decent 3-1 away victory. Bourton defied their lowly division one position by turning over one of division two’s in form teams. Chris Jones scored once again for Siege but Jake Maudsley replied for Bourton. Alex Winter then hit a double to give Bourton a bit of breathing space and that’s how the game finished.

Supplementary Cup
It’s Rangers who have the bragging rights after the Ascott derby as FC Ascott Rangers defeated FC Ascott 5-0 in their second round first leg contest. Rangers even managed to notch five different goal scorers in the process as Chris Brooksbank, Marshall Balmer, Brendon Campbell, Aaron Court and Travis Cozier all recorded scores in the game.
Stonesfield put aside their indifferent league form to record a comfortable victory over Bampton United Reserves. Lewis Hanks, Dan Taylor and Shaun Kemp all scored one each in what Stonesfield will hope is an unassailable advantage ahead of the second leg.
A Dan Davies double ensured that Kingham All Blacks Reserves have the slenderest of leads after the conclusion of their second round first leg contest. Their visit to Chipping Norton always looked to be a close game on paper with the teams tied on points in division three and so it proved with Kingham edging the contest 2-1. Darren Bridge’s response for Chippy will give them some cause for optimism before the second leg.
One side already into round three are the favourites to lift the trophy, Bletchington. After hitting seven for the last two weeks against the same opposition, they did exactly the same again against Witney Royals Reserves. Jamie Hudson and Richie Wells both scored once again to get the score line moving the right way for Bletchington. Aaron Johnson also popped up with a goal to make it three with Michael Trafford and Mason Connelly both bagging a brace to complete the scoring for Bletchington. Jake Harding hit back for Royals for the merest of consolation with the aggregate score finishing a monstrous 14-3 to Bletch.

Division Four
There were hat-trick heroes for both sides as Brize Norton Reserves and Spartan Rangers A managed to cancel each other out in a 10 goal thriller. Richard Duffy and James Macke scored three each for Brize and Spartan respectively. Tom Merchant scored for Spartan only for Jason Hirschfield to bring the tie level before Cameron West scored for Brize and James Tudge rescued a point for Spartan in the breathless 5-5 draw.