Week 14 Match Reports

Regular evenings of minus temperatures ruined the Witney and District programme on Saturday as the freezing temperatures caused eleven matches to fall foul of the weather, accounting for almost 50% of the scheduled matches. The condensed number of games still brought plenty of goals and action with it though across the leagues and County Cups

Junior Shield
The Witney and District were two from two on Saturday in the completed Junior Shield fixtures.
Bampton brushed past Finmere with a 3-0 victory to make it into the last eight. Karl Pritchard’s brace and a James Haley goal saw the Division One outfit through.
Division One’s Heyford Athletic survived a scare from Division Two’s Wootton to make it into the quarter finals. Michael Steers and Bradley Fine almost gave Wootton an upset but Heyford squeezed past thanks to goals from Robert Gosling, Joseph Flarry and Ben Dawe, in a 3-2 win.
The postponed fixtures have been rescheduled to Saturday 9th December.

Premier Division

For the second week in a row Hanborough dished out a defeat to one of the top two as they continue to get their season back on track. They inflicted a first defeat of the season on RAF Brize last week and this week they managed to prevent Hook Norton from going joint top with another battling display in the cold weather. Ben Haynes scored for Hook Norton but top scorer Alpha Breezy Kamara picked up yet another goal this season and Travis O’Connor added another one to his tally for the season to give Hanborough all three points and keep within touching distance of the top two.

Division One

After only winning one of their first four, Combe have now won five of their last six as they flew into the promotion positions with an 8-1 drubbing of Hanborough Reserves. In fact, if the season had started six games ago, Combe would top Division One such has been their form in recent weeks. Luke Barton’s hat-trick set the tone for the afternoon. Louis Ashcroft, Elliot Want, Herbie Hamilton and Solomon Massz scored one each in a bumper afternoon in front of goal. Hanborough helped them along with an own goal although Josh Edwards’ strike did at least put Hanborough on the scorecard in the one-sided encounter. The score was so great that Combe gained the best goal difference in the league, a stat that helped them into third place at the end of the day.

Brize Norton continue in a similar vein to Combe as their recent form has lifted them away from trouble at the other end of the table. After winning only one of their opening six, they recorded their third victory in four games at the weekend with a late double which helped them past Cassington. Joe Hatt gave Brize a slender half-time lead but that evaporated inside the first 20 minutes of the second period as Dean Mays equalised just seven minutes after the break and then Declan Green gave Cassington the lead in the 63rd minute. Cassington held firm and seemed to be leaving with all the points until Jacob Hambridge popped up with an equaliser nine minutes from time and Brize completed the dramatic turnaround, five minutes later, when Hatt grabbed his second to give Brize a 3-2 win.

Spartan and Eynsham got the result that neither of them wanted as they cancelled each other out in a 1-1 draw at Newlands. The result gave Spartan their third draw of the season but leaves them bottom. Eynsham remain third bottom and the last place of safety but at least prevented Spartan from making any ground on them in the table.

Division Two

If you want goals this season, go to a Division Two game. Just the three games played this weekend but there were still 20 goals scored.

Contributing more than half of those were Freeland who put eleven past Leafield without reply. Rob Frost was the hat-trick hero on the day but he was heavily supported by braces from Robert Fotherby and Connor Smith. Paul Inch, Jerome Carbon, Matt Williams and Mathew Moore all scored one each for Freeland’s biggest win of the season by some distance.

In the battle near the bottom it was the outstanding performance of Adam Townsend in the Witney Royals Reserves net that ultimately earned his side all three points. A quickfire opening on the frosty Kingham ground saw both sides score inside the opening 10 minutes. Michael Woodward opening the scoring for Royals only for Dylan Ellis to equalise two minutes later. After that, a stalemate as the sides struggled to put anything of note together. Nick Ellis in the Kingham net was commanding in his area under a barrage of Royals corners and crosses. Townsend was just getting warmed up as he marshalled his box with similar serenity. The second half was a different affair, Royals making five changes at the break looked disorganised as Kingham asserted dominance. Townsend produced two incredible saves at point blank range within five minutes of each other to prevent Kingham taking the lead part way through the half. Even when Townsend was beaten, Shane Cooper’s simple ball across the six-yard box evaded two waiting Kingham players who swung and missed in turn as the ball eventually bobbled out for a goal kick. Then the heart-breaking moment for Kingham as Royals attacked down the right and saw a harmless ball travel across the edge of the box, only to find Sam Taylor waiting, whose rasping first time shot fired into the bottom corner to steal the points just two minutes from time.

Yarnton A managed to beat FC Mills and leapfrog them in the table on Saturday afternoon. A 4-2 win giving them their sixth win of the season. There were six different goal scorers as well, John Chapman and James Morgan scoring for Mills. Yarnton were too strong and had Harry Brook, Michael Trafford, Peter Taylor and Ben Fouracre on target for the three points which puts them fifth.

Faringdon Town Development got their seventh win of the season without kicking a ball. A walkover victory over Milton under Wychwood Reserves kept them fourth whilst Milton remain just inside the relegation zone.

Division Three

With Deer Park Rangers maintaining their 100% record with a walkover victory against Kingham Reserves, and looking seemingly unstoppable in their pursuit of Division Three glory, it’s up to the chasing pack to battle it out to finish behind them this season. This weekend’s fixtures pitted second against third as Aston Reserves travelled to Heyford Reserves. In the end it would be the home side who prevailed, and would switch positions in the league with their opponents, after winning by the odd goal in five. Tom Merchant and Lewis Gardner gave Aston hopes of at least a point but Connor Mills’ brace and a single goal for Freddie Holloway meant Heyford took the three points that puts them second in the table. Aston drop to third but only four points separates the sides in second and sixth.

Leafield earned their second draw in as many weeks as they managed to draw with Faringdon Town A. William Witchell scored for Leafield, Faringdon had Chris Rutt to thank for salvaging a point.

Bampton Reserves moved further away from the bottom after claiming their first win in six games with victory over Stonesfield Reserves. Jordan Newman scored for the home side but Bampton hit back through Dan Paintin and Rob Hook goals to snatch a 2-1 win.