Wanderers turn up the heat on Town

HENLEY TOWN went down to a
5-3 Premier Division defeat at WESTWOOD WANDERERS last Saturday.

Playing on a 4G pitch on the hottest day of the year, both teams were slow in their build-ups with the home side taking a two-goal lead after 20 minutes with goals by Mich Porter and Kai Stubbs-Alleyne.

Westwood, with their stronger physical presence, were causing continuous problems for the Henley defence and increased their lead after 35 minutes with a header from a corner by Caeden Hutson to make it 3-0.

Town started to get more of a grip on the game and pulled a goal back with a 20-yard shot low into the corner by Charlie Douglas.

Henley could have reduced the arrears on the stroke of half-time when Tom Barker was clean through but he dragged his shot wide of the post.

Westwood added a fourth on 55 minutes after poor defensive work by the Henley defenders let in Stubbs-Alleyne to score his second. Town rallied again and after a good move down the left flank a cross by Savio Patel fell to Luke Mulvaney whose shot was palmed out by the keeper, only for Barker to fire home the rebound from six yards out.

Once again Westwood increased their lead when the Town defence failed to stop a cross to the far post where George Bullion headed home past goalkeeper Isaac Aitchison.

Henley kept on working and scored their third goal after a good run from Douglas who shot home from a tight angle. Town finished the game strongly with some half chances but were unable to salvage anything.

Elsewhere in the division, WARGRAVE went down to a 3-1 defeat at home to HURST.

In Division 1, GORING UNITED recorded their first win of the season as they defeated visitors WOODLEY UNITED DEVELOPMENT 3-1 at Upper Cross Road. Christopher Pocock and Matthew Hayden were both on target for the hosts.

HENLEY TOWN DEVELOPMENT lost their opening Division 2 match of the season when they went down 4-3 at The Triangle against ALLIED COMMUNITY ELITE.

The match started at pace with Henley having the better of the opening 10 minutes of play. A long range curling effort by Sema Kakembo narrowly missed the top corner while another chance from Hugh Barklem went begging.

Against the run of play it was the Allied Community Elite who opened the scoring through Ryan McGuire.

Shortly after the restart the visitors enjoyed some pressure as McGuire doubled his side’s lead. The visitors went 3-0 up when McGuire completed his hat-trick.

After 30 minutes Harry Douglas picked up the ball and dribbled in and out of tackles around the defence before firing a shot off that beat the keeper to give Henley their first goal of the match. However, during the move Douglas picked up an injury and was substituted.

Henley started well in the second half having most of the possession with debutant Adam Palmer playing at left back pulling back another
goal for the hosts with a shot from outside the box that rifled the inside netting.

Henley’s tails were up and they went searching for the equaliser but McGuire once again found the back of Henley’s net to make it 4-2.

Kakembo managed to find the net to open his account for the season and make the score 4-3 with five minutes to go. Henley piled on the pressure in their search for an equaliser with Kakembo having two strikes on goal well-saved by the visiting goalkeeper.

In Division 3, HAMBLEDEN STAGS went down to a 3-0 defeat at HARCHESTER HAWKS.