Witney & District Match Reports - Week 15

#WDFAdominance

John Fathers Oxon Junior Shield

It was a great day for clubs taking part in the Junior Shield. 6 WDFA sides now make up the quarter final.
Pride of place, goes to Division 2 sides, Aston and Combe who both beat Premier Division sides.
An Aston side with 3 former Spartan Rangers players in the starting 11 turned over Spartan 5-3. In a seesaw game Aston looked to be heading into the Q-F when 3-2 up with only minutes remaining. Nick Angus with 2 and Lewis Scott netted for The Lions with Henry Clarke and Josh Walkington replying. Then with the clock ticking down to 90 minutes a further long punt into the Aston box saw Jamie Timms toe poke the ball past a stranded Ashley Armitage. But Spartan's joy was short lived a long punt by Armitage cleared 20 players and Spartan keeper Harvey Alder initially contrilled the ball outside his area but his second touch was poor and sub Aaron Robins who had only been on the field a couple of minutes nipped him and robbed him and rolled the ball into the empty net. Then in injury time, a ball was launched into the home box and Cairo Cuss was on hand to score and create a huge upset.

Combe were also involved in a thriller, edging out Hook Norton 4-3. Combe shared their goals amongst the team the Kai Paton, Archie Hamilton, Solomon Maasz and Matty Walker scoring. For the home side Conor Davies netter twice and James Henagan the other.

It was a back to the wall, smash and grab job for Milton who defeated Banbury and District League leaders Hardwick 1-0. Reserve team strikert Dan Hooton was the scorer Every single one of the lads put an absolute shift in but shout out Alex Weaving and Sean Godfrey for incredible performance and keeper Adrian Underhill making some fantastic saves!!

Hailey had to come from behind to defeat Donnington 3-1. They dominated the opening 15 minutes but found the visiting keeper in great form, making 3 great saves. Then against the run of play Donnington took the lead when home keeper Connor Townsend gave away a needeless penalty which was dispatched past him. But the lead was short lived and Devon wright headed into an open goal after Tom Gregory header hit the bar with the keeper stranded. Townsend then turned provider and long hopeful punt cleared the defence and Gregory lumbered through and slipped the ball past the keeper. Hailey were then reduced the 10 men when Travis O'Connor was dismissed just before half time. But Hailey held on and Jordan Cormack added to the lead in the secind period.

After a goalless first half Stonesfield hit 4 unanswered goals past East Oxford. Carry Rice scored his 10th goal of the season, whilst Sam Hibberd making a rare 1st team appearence in a number of years scored his first. In between Nick Higgs and Jordan Newman netted,

The 6th WDFA side through are Hanborough who were the winners of the competition the last time they competed in it. They defeated Aylesbury league side Tetsworth 4-1 with Craig Mays netting twice and Dan King and Josh Brookes adding the others.

Premier Division

There was only 1 Premier Division fixture and local rivals Charlbury and Enstone met. With neither side in great form Charlbury gained the 3 points with a brace from Callum Smart. The points lifted Charlbury up to 6th place.

Division One

Freeland moved to the the top of Division 1 thanks to a 3-2 over an under strength Chadlington side. The home side had Joey Burgess to thank for the points as he greabbed a hat trick to take his tally for the season to 7. Ethan Bennett and Matt Chadwick replied.

Minster Lovell are tugging at the coat tails of Freeland in 2nd spot 2 points behind, after they beat bottom side Kingham 3-1. Matt Knibbs, Chris Bowles and Ben Daniels were scorers for Minster. All of course were assisted by Carl Williams. Toby Hitchman grabbed Kinghams goal, Williams again playing his part.

Division Three

Faringdown Town A closed the gap on leaders Hailey A to 3 points after a close fought 2-1 away win at Chadlington Res. Jack Green and Adam Finney netting for the visitors. Mauro Esteves scoring for the home side.

Brize Norton moved into 5th place, also winning 2-1 against Eynsham SSC. Joe Hatt and Dylan Briggs were th scorers for Brize with Lewis Wild replying.

Division Four

The top tow sides in Division 4 met as Hatherop Res hosted Leaders Freeland Res. In a feisty affair it was the home side who came out on top thanks to a Craig Whitbread double. Hatherop also leapt above their opponents to top the table.

Faringdon Town B are in 3rd place just a point behind Freeland. They hit Spartan Rangers for 7 with Chris Rutt leading the way with a 4 timer. Nick Loveridge, Tom Walsham & Alistsir Ecclestone scoring the others.

Witney Royals Res and Sherborne played out an entertaining 3-3 draw. Sherborne found themselves behind early through a George Lambourne but levelled through Lee Salf…..Royals defender Ian Barrett got the final touch but Lee assured us all it was going somewhere vaguely near the penalty area anyway and Is claiming it. ?
A couple more goals from Witney from Lambourne and Luke Colville with the wind behind them saw them lead 3-1 at half time. At this point Josh Betteridge channeled his inner Mike Bassett and gave an inspirational half time team talk about being 2-0 down to the Mexicans, which no-one really understood, and sent Sherborne back out for the second half with renewed vigour.
Sherborne battled back in the second half making good use of the wind and pulled a goal back through a quick counter attack from a Witney corner when Lee Salf found himself one on one with the keeper and beautifully scuffed his shot into the corner with a level of skill rarely seen at this level.
Sherborne completed their comeback with another counter attack when Josh Betteridge found space in the box to get his left toe to the ball whilst falling over in the box.
Both Josh and Lee had chances to win the game in the last 10 minutes but unfortunately neither shot has landed yet….. if anyone finds a couple of yellow mitre balls around the Heathrow area please return them to Witney Royals FC.