Witney & District Match Reports - Week 18

By Ant Barlow

Saturday 15th January 2022 Written by David Evans

Seventh heaven for Faringdon in Fred Ford romp

Fred Ford Cup
Division Three’s Faringdon Town A remain the lowest ranked side left in the competition as they upset Division One’s Wootton Sports to advance into the semi-finals. A dominant performance from the first to the last whistle saw Faringdon control proceedings throughout the ninety minutes as they strolled to a 7-0 victory. The headlines went to Richard Evans who scored a hat-trick with other goals coming from Robbie Harrington (2), Sam Leech and Jack Green as Faringdon took their place in the next round.

Jack Morton’s stunning four-timer helped Hanborough come from behind to defeat fellow Premier Division side Enstone Sports in a seven goal thriller at Roosevelt Road. It was a welcome return to winning ways for the home side after last week’s league disappointment against Stonesfield. The men in red started brightly with Craig Mays missing an early volley. The deadlock was broken by the impressive Morton as he jumped onto a through ball and slotted home to give Hanborough the lead. The goal livened Enstone up and they became the better of the two sides. Deservedly, Andy McCabe levelled proceedings and Boro were firmly on the back foot. It could have been 2-1 following a defensive mix up, but the referee not saved Boro’s blushes when awarding a foul as the ball was bundled home but Enstone continued to turn the screw and Josh Hunt gave Enstone the lead going into half time.

The half-time break did Hanborough the world of good and restarted the game with renewed vigour. Now dominating proceedings and keeping the ball, chances were easy to come by and Morton soon levelled the game with his second of the match before quickly completing his hat-trick to put the home side ahead again. Enstone continued to battle and had opportunities to level the game before Morton scored his fourth and a fifth goal eventually arrived courtesy of substitute Josh Brookes to seal Hanborough’s place in the last four.

Premier Division
Bottom side Milton Under Wychwood remain without a point all season as they fell to a 4-0 reverse against Carterton FC Rangers. Ryan Clish and Liam Day both scored for the second week running to get Rangers’ afternoon off to a great start and further goals followed from Alex Berrow and Aaron Lewis as Rangers moved within three points of league leaders Hanborough.

Division Two
Charlie Fisher scored a second successive hat-trick for Ducklington as they took advantage of one of their games in hand to close the gap on RAF Brize Norton. Playing against Siege, who only had ten players available, Ducklington found themselves battling hard for the three points but ultimately proved too strong for their depleted opponents. Lewis Bartlett also scored a hat-trick with Harvey Butler’s towering header completing Ducklington’s haul for the afternoon. Siege hit back with three of their own via Kev Lewis, Jake Bee and Jordan Finnemore’s goals but the 7-3 win sends Ducklington second in the table, six points behind Brize with two games in hand.

Aston thrashed Cassington Rangers to remain fourth in the table. Despite Tyler Walker’s strike for hosts Cassington, Aston strolled to victory courtesy of Nick Angus’ brace with Aaron Robins, Charlie Harper and Lewis Scott also slotting home for the away side.

Combe are up to fifth in the league after beating Spartan Rangers Reserves by the odd goal in seven. Josh Walkington, Donny Henderson-Sowerby and Tom Williams’ goals for Spartan would have had them hoping for at least a point but they were undone by Luke Barton’s hat-trick and Solomon Maasz scored Combe’s fourth to snatch all three points.
Jack Busby Memorial Trophy

Two of the four Jack Busby quarter final ties were completed this weekend with Kingham Reserves and Hailey Reserves prevailing inside ninety minutes.

Kingham hosted Aston Reserves in an all Division Four encounter. The sides last met in November, with Kingham winning their league encounter and they were able to earn another victory on Saturday. Goals from Jake Godfrey, Alex Stringer and a George Martin brace made for a fairly comfortable afternoon for the hosts. Neil Cooley’s response for Aston did nothing to dent Kingham’s progress and into the semi-finals they went.

Hailey Reserves are handling their favourites tag well as they brushed aside Witney Royals Reserves in their last eight tie. As the highest ranked side, many fancy Hailey to go all the way and they prevailed after putting six past Witney Royals Reserves, who reside three divisions lower in the Witney and District. Doubles from Bradley Evans and Moh Semlali had Hailey in dream land and although Royals goal machine Corey Donohue hit back with a brace of his own, Curtis Hathaway and George Blundell made sure of victory and a place in the semi-finals for the green and white hoops.

Division Three
Goals galore in Division Three with twenty two goals in the four games, with Leafield, Bampton and Hailey all winning by five goals each.
Hailey A are back on top after a 5-0 win over Wootton Sports Reserves. A well contested affair saw Hailey the more clinical in front of goal. Cody Davies scored two but Tommy Burns went one better scoring a hat-trick as Hailey moved three points clear.

Leafield dished out a 6-1 thrashing of Eynsham SSC to remain third and keep themselves in the hunt to catch Hailey at the top. Even though Stephen Chappel scored for Eynsham, Leafield stormed to victory with a Markus Carvalho hat-trick and further strikes from Guilherne Silva, Benjamin Barbosa and Markus Vinicius gave Leafield all three points.
A second half demolition saw Bampton United Reserves cast aside FC Mills. Bampton opened the score in the twelfth minute to take the lead. Mills hit the post and a couple of fine saves from the Mills keeper kept things close at the break. Bampton doubled their lead just seven minutes into the second half and tripled it just seven minutes later from the penalty spot after handball inside the area.

Mills did pull one back and their comeback was only prevented by two incredible saves from the Bampton keeper. Two late goals from Bampton ensured that the away side recorded their third away win of the season. Goal scorers for Bampton were Chris Laurence, Chris Mitchell, Callum Sherlock (2) and Regan Pritchard (2). Dean Spivey grabbed Mills’ consolation.

Brize Reserves continued their recent resurgence with a 3-0 win against Milton Reserves. The victory giving Brize their third win in a row and their fourth win in five. Goals from Alfie Gardiner, Paul Morrison and Matthew Webster securing the three points and leaving Brize well set in fourth place in the league. Milton remain seventh.

Divison Four
A top of the table clash in Division Four saw Hatherop visit Freeland as second hosted first, in front of a decent crows in Freeland. They witnessed a drab first half without many chances as the game progressed to half-time without incident or a goal to mention. In the second half Sam Blantz had the first opportunity for Freeland but powered his strike straight at Steve Nicholson. Hatherop were then awarded a spot kick but leading scorer Craig Whitbread saw his tame spot kick saved by Robin Kidd. Not long after and Whitbread made amends with a header at the far post and the lead was quickly doubled by substitute Sam Waugh, who fired home from the edge of the box.

Freeland tried to get back into the game but weren’t given much opportunity to do so by the miserly Hatherop defence and the points were sealed as Hatherop were awarded a second spot kick and Christian Turner-Williams made no mistake to put Hatherop eleven points clear at the top and their title destiny is now firmly in their own hands.
Stonesfield have their fourth away win and fifth win overall after a comprehensive victory against Sherborne Harriers. Jordan Newman’s cameo from the first team was rewarded with a goal with further strikes coming from Adam Holmes (2) and Luke Burns. An Aaron Lowe own goal made matters worse for Sherborne as Stonesfield hit five. An Andy Barnes penalty and a Lee Saif strike ensured some respect to the score line for Sherborne but the 5-2 win was richly deserved by visiting Stonesfield.

Latest photos

CRFC
1 photo
CRFC
My Photos
47 photos
My Photos

Witney & District FA newsletter

Keep up-to-date with our exclusive email newsletters.

Subscribe