Week 14 Football Report

John Fathers Junior Shield

Witney and District sides will dominate the quarter final draw for the Junior Shield later this month as five teams advanced to the last eight with victories at the weekend.

Reigning champions Hailey are safely through after seeing off fellow W&D side, Charlbury Town, at home. Freddie Buckingham scored for the fourth game in a row as he scored twice for the second week running. Captain Jack Wood matched his goal scoring efforts by scoring two of his own. Matt Wood and Sam Britnell scored one each in the 6-0 victory.

Enstone also scored six against W&D opposition as they ended Aston’s hopes of lifting the trophy. Aston, who reached the semi final stage last year, did at least score through Charlie Harper, but there was no stopping Enstone on the day. Jay Mair and James Little both scored twice, Nathan Bott and Olaitan Abdulateef added the extras in a 6-1 win.

Hanborough also won by five goals as they look to regain the trophy they won back in 2018. They put eight past Oxford City football league side The Queens as they marched into the quarter finals. Lee Keyes smashed home a hat-trick with Craig Mays adding two more of his own. Josh Brookes, Arran Hobley and Aston Leach all found the net in an entertaining 8-3 win.
Stonesfield are still in the competition after edging Swis by the odd goal in five. Jack Sale, Raffy Rice and Will Barker all scored in the 3-2 win.

Witney Royals are the lowest ranked W&D side left in the competition after a walkover victory in their game against MINI.

There will be no quarter final appearance for Chadlington after they went down 6-0 to Hardwick Sports.

Premier Division

From Milton FB page
The firsts travelled to Freeland on Saturday eager to end the run of losses. Freeland currently sit 3rd in the league whilst we sit 4th. We had a full squad of 16 and with Kingy running late, it was down to me to get the lads up for the game.
A good warm up in the freezing cold conditions helped prep the boys for a fast start. Weavo stepped in between the sticks as he's coming back from an ankle injury whilst Taylor slipped back into his centre back role. And the return of JC was a welcome sight. The game kicked off and instantly you could see we really wanted this one. We attacked and attacked and created several decent chances. Freddie, Catling and Wig all had multiple decent chances that unfortunately we couldn’t finish. However, we were playing our footy in their half and they were resorting to a long ball to get out. But on the half hour mark they found their attacker who drove into our box and managed to win a penalty completely against the run of play. Weavo got his hands to it but it wasn't quite enough so Freeland took the lead. 1-0. We didn't let this affect us and soon got back on top creating more chances. Freeland started time wasting on every occasion they could hoping to see out the next hour for a 1-0 win. The half came to an end and somehow, we found ourselves 1-0 down when we could have easily had 4 or 5 ourselves. Probably one of the best 45's we had this season.
HT' Freeland 1-0 Milton
A few chances at half time to add a different dimension to our attack. The second half kicked off and we soon found ourselves on the attack again. The game seemed to open and there were gaps all over the park. We were doing well in utilising these gaps and knocking the ball around. More chances came which we didn't have the finish for. Then on the hour mark, a lovely live down the left saw Jase get into the box and evade several defenders before cutting the ball back to Catling who smashed it home. 1-1 and fully deserved. This gave us the confidence to push forward even more to get the winner. We were comfortable with our 3 defenders constantly having 3 strikers to deal with and we mopped everything up. There were a few strong tackles being made from both sides as Freeland looked to take any flow out of our play. Their number 7 giving Jake Taylor a nasty blow to his eye in an off the ball incident that infuriated everyone that saw it. Their player was very lucky the ref didn't see it otherwise it would have been ta ta. The game continued and we were eager to find the winner when in the 89th minute Lakey was put through and he smashed it home. A superb finish only for the lino to call it offside. Correct decision or not, we'll never know.
FT'
Freeland 1-1 Milton
One of our best performances for a long time. Dominated from start to finish and if we had our shooting boots, we would have easily won that game at a canter. Well played everyone involved.

Division One

Three of the top four all won in division one to keep things very tight at the top of the league. With Aston out on Junior Shield duties, Hatherop’s win over Ducklington helped them into third place. Cameron Lloyd, Christian Turner-Williams and Charlie Bailey (2) all scored in the 4-2 win. Jasper Winder replied for Ducklington but defeat leaves them in the bottom two.

RAF Brize Norton Social continued to improve upon their goal difference with a 7-0 win over Hailey Reserves. The result was a stark contrast to the reverse fixture from October, where Hailey gave Brize a fright before Brize marched onto victory. This time it was a much more comfortable afternoon. Mike Flavell scored two, with Zac Vale, Rich Hall, and Phil Kenyon scoring one each. It was left to a father/son combination to complete the scoring as John and Coen Sword both came off the bench to score one each, as Brize kept the heat on Carterton and currently have a game in hand.

Carterton maintained their three point advantage at the top of the league with a healthy 8-2 win over Faringdon Development. Connor Townsend took his tally to nine for the season with a hat-trick, Jack Bellenger remains top of the goal scoring charts with eleven after his brace of goals. A Faringdon own goal, followed by James Kennet’s and Jay Revill’s goals completed the scoring for Carterton. Frank Michienzi and Adam Sly responded for Faringdon. With Carterton and Brize both in Fred Ford action next week, it means their next league fixture is against each other on the Saturday before Christmas!

Heyford made it three wins in a row to climb into fifth place, Connor Duggan scored his sixth goal in three games for 1-0, brother Kian scored a double of his own to complete a tidy 3-0 win over bottom side Combe.

Division Two

The top two won again in division two but table topping credentials shifted to Brize Norton as their goal difference finally overtook Cassington’s on a potentially pivotal weekend.

Cassington snatched a win from the jaws of a draw as Jordan Lyne’s 88th minute bullet rescued all three points for a frustrated Cassington side. They hosted Bampton at Elms Road but found themselves behind after just nine minutes, Karl Pritchard’s strike finding the back of the net as Cassington struggled to get going. Neither keeper was tested or pressurised until the Cassington management made an inspired substitution. David Cooper made way for Will Morris and less than five minutes later, and with his first two touches of the ball, brought the ball down on the edge of the box, swivelled and curved a shot inside the right hand post which slipped through the keeper’s hands and into the bottom corner as the sides broke at half-time with nothing to separate them. Where there were no chances of note outside the goals in the first half, the second was a different story altogether. Cassington controlled territory and possession as they continued to hound the Bampton area. Scrambling defence, last ditch tackles and resolute stubbornness kept Bampton in the game, with two goal line clearances as well as a crazy ten second passage which saw the Bampton keeper make two critical saves either side of two other goal line clearances as almost the entire Cassington squad queued up to have a go at taking the lead. Bampton had a couple of voyages into the Cassington half as the clock wound down, forcing a couple of corners but no clear cut chances. Just as the game was entering its final few moments, Cassington changed tactic and Jordan Lyne decided to shoot from outside the box and his 25 yard strike sailed into the bottom left corner of the net causing Bampton players to drop to their knees in resignation. The final four minutes were seen out with comfort and Cassington’s maintained their 100% start to the season.

Brize Norton scored their nineteenth goal in three games as their fine goal scoring form finally tipped the balance of goal difference in their favour to move top of the league. Their 7-0 demolition of bottom side Spartan Rangers, coupled with Cassington’s narrow win over Bampton saw them open a five goal advantage on their rivals. Six different goal scorers got on the score sheet in their away victory. Joe Hatt led the way with two goals with further strikes from Freddie Bateman, Morgan Oxendale, Jacob Hambridge, Matthew Webster and Jason Hirschfield completing the rout. Cassington play their game in hand on the 17th December, hoping to put a little bit of daylight between themselves and Brize.

Witney Royals Reserves remain seven points behind but dished out their own drubbing by thrashing Kingham All Blacks 5-0. The two sides only met last month in the league where Royals came from behind twice to eventually beat Kingham. There were no such issues this time as Royals stormed to victory. Elliot Major scoring twice from off the bench with Rob DeBanks, Dan Milner and Dan Townsend all scoring one each. Kingham’s ill discipline cost them with three players receiving yellows. Their cause on the day also not helped by Patrick Kimp seeing red as Kingham were reduced to ten men during the game.

Justin Yates and Tom Burdett both scored twice each as Faringdon Town A recorded their third league win of the season in their battle at the bottom versus Milton Reserves. Faringdon started the day thirteenth and one place below their hosts but managed to equal their biggest margin of victory in a 4-1 win. Dan Hooton replied for Milton as they slipped down one place. Faringdon jumped all the way to tenth as result of the three points.

Division Three

Reece Waine’s hat-trick gave Aston Reserves an important three points at the bottom of the division three as they downed bottom side Eynsham Reserves. Both teams were tied on six points at the start of the day and Eynsham put up a fight in a bid to try and get off the bottom. Charlie Siret, Leuan Owen and Jack Knight all scored one each to get Eynsham into the game but Matt Foley and Bradley Allen’s goal gave Aston a 5-3 win.

Sherborne Harriers caused the biggest upset by sending fourth placed Wootton to their third consecutive league defeat. Lee Spencer scored a hat-trick for Wootton to give them hopes of at least a point but he was matched on the day by Josh Betteridge’s own three goal haul as he moved to nine goals for the season. A Sherborne own goal was responsible for Wootton’s fourth but Harry Green and Ed Wembridge goals for Sherborne lifted them up one place in the league with a 5-4 win.

Deer Park Rangers moved into second place with victory over Stonesfield Reserves. Mike Phipps and Finley Baker (2) scored for Stonesfield but four different goal scorers combined to take the three points for Rangers. Dan Squires, Jack Hamblin, Andrew Rippen and Cullen Angus all scored one each, with Angus assisting on two of the other goals to earn himself the man of the match award and Rangers’ sixth league win of the season.

FC Mills got back to winning ways against Leafield Reserves to maintain their hopes of challenging for the title. A 7-1 victory cemented a near perfect afternoon for Mills at West Witney. Stu Cutts, Lee Senior, Dean Mays, Carlos Paiva and Aaron French all scored once for Mills, Charles Figuredo replied for Leafield but John Chapman’s double was the icing on the cake for Mills who are five points off top spot with three games in hand. Mills travel to fourth placed Wootton in two weeks’ time.

Yarnton A have a three point cushion at the top after a commanding win over Kingham Reserves. Ellis Godin’s ninth goal of the season was as good as it got for Kingham as Yarnton scored freely throughout the afternoon. George Greening, Michael Trafford and Perry Trafford all scored one goal, Ethan Penny scored twice in the 5-1 win.