Week 26 Football Report

The biblical downpours that drenched the Witney and District football region caused disruption and chaos as over 15 fixtures were lost this week, including both Jack Busby semi-finals and three of the four Fred Ford quarter finals too. The most complete league was Division Three, which is where we begin this week.

Division Three

Four fixtures in Division Three managed to make it through the deluge, with 19 goals finding the back of the net.
More than half of those came at Wootton as they remained top of Division Three by thrashing bottom side Eynsham Reserves 10-0. Asha Townsend moved his personal goal tally into the 30’s for the season, with a four-goal haul. Paul Brown scored twice and there were single strikes from Theo Flatman, Jack Pease, Jamie Hutton and James Trafford as Wootton romped home.

Chadlington Reserves slipped to three points behind Wootton as they were held to a 2-2 draw by Kingham Reserves. Ethan Taylor and Finlay Beggin scored for Chadlington. Kingham hit back through Ellis Golding and Jake Godfrey to rescue a point and stretch their unbeaten run to nine games in the league.

Yarnton still have their destiny in their own hands as they bounced back from consecutive defeats with a 3-1 win over FC Mills. Aaron French scored for Mills but Yarnton hit back through regular goal scorers Ethan Penney and Michael Trafford. Sean Dyer also scored for Yarnton as they stay five points behind Wootton with two games in hand.

Brad Allen’s early first half goal was enough to give Aston all three points against Carterton Town. Allen’s rocket, inside the first 15 minutes, beat Lee Williams in the Town goal for the only goal of the game and gave Aston their seventh win of the season.

Division Two

Just the one game in Division Two, at Kingham, where Kingham recovered from back to back defeats to record a 2-0 win over third placed Eynsham. Jake Godfrey took his tally to two for the day by scoring for both the first team and the reserves. Michael Bedford also scored in a 2-0 win for the home side.

Division One

Only one game in Division One as Witney Royals and Hatherop played out a five-goal thriller at Burwell Meadow. Luke Colville scored once for Royals but Hatherop found the net for the first time in five games as they hit back through David Legg and Fabian Daniels. Corey Donohue’s brace stole the points for Royals as they won 3-2 to climb up two places in the league to sixth.

Junior Shield Semi Final (Wednesday 29th March)

Hanborough were into the final four of the John Fathers’ Junior Shield and faced off against a young Graven Hill side, currently second in the Banbury District and Lord Jersey Premier Division. The driving rain that most of the county had seen over the previous week was ever present throughout the match. Hanborough started the brighter of the two, maintained possession and created one or two half chances. Twenty minutes in and Hanborough showed their threat as Craig Johnson was played through, poked the ball around the goalkeeper and was then upended by the goalie on the edge of the box. Yellow to the keeper and a free kick to Hanborough where Arran Hobley punished the Graven Hill error by bending the ball into the net. This kick started Graven Hill into life who began to grow into the game. Fouls and cards were aplenty as the physicality increased throughout the first half. In almost a carbon copy of the earlier incident, Tom Bennington was also carded for fouling a player on the edge of the box but the key difference was he was able to tip the resulting free kick over the bar and Boro led into the break.
The second half was clearly Graven Hill’s. Within seconds of the restart Dan Haggie was clearing the ball out from under his own cross bar, five minutes later Bennington was forced into a smart save with his feet. Into the 55th minute and Graven Hill were level. A defensive mix up left a striker all alone in the box and a simple tap in brought them level. Fifteen minutes later and Graven Hill were ahead. Substitute Sam Cox breezed past the Boro defence and curled the ball into the net. Boro made changes for the final twenty but in truth Bennington remained the busier of the two keepers, making two more good saves to keep Boro in it. Sadly, the equaliser evaded them and Graven Hill advanced to face Hailey in the final.
The Junior Shield final is on Wednesday 26th April, at Oxford City. 19:45 kick off

Premier Division

Just like Division One and Two, there was only one game on in the Prem as well. Charlbury moved up to third in the league with a brilliant away win over bottom side Spartan Rangers. Rangers would have been bouncing after beating previous third placed side Enstone last week and got well into the game with goals from Darren Craig and David Pryse but Charlbury hit back with a brace from Felix Robertson. Tom Williams and Charlie Chadwick added one each and Cian Fitzgerald came off the bench to score a fifth for Charlbury as they ran out 5-2 victors.

Fred Ford Quarter Finals

Only one of the four ties survived this week’s weather. Division One’s Tower Hill visited Division Two leaders Cassington Rangers. Only one goal separated the sides, Ben Kibble’s 34th minute strike was the only goal of the game as Rangers went through to the final four.