Henley denied victory as visitors’ late double strike earns share of spoils

HENLEY 1sts and AMERSHAM 1sts played out a 3-3 draw in South Central Premier Division 1 at Jubilee Park last Saturday.

Henley started brightly with Sam Heaver and Harry Rechner both testing Amersham’s keeper before Ed Foster who opened the scoring with a drag flick from a short corner.

Jonny Taylor doubled the lead soon after, deflecting in another short corner. Things were looking comfortable for Henley, until Amersham pulled a goal back from a clever short corner routine. Soon after Taylor picked up a yellow card.

In the second half, the game turned cagey, and Henley had to fight off Amersham attacks. In the 50th minute, Harry Rechner popped up at the back post to put Henley 3-1 up.

In the final 10 minutes, the away side scored twice in quick succession, first with a deflected shot and then with a calm finish, to snatch a share of the spoils.

In South Central Division 2 North, HENLEY 2nds ran out 5-1 winners at PHOENIX READING 1sts.

The game started with good structure and movement as Henley figured out their opponents. Phoenix opened the scoring with a converted short corner but this was responded to swiftly by Robbie Farina, taking the top off the ball and still finding the back of the net. Not to be outdone, top goalscorer Richard Woolfrey scored past the keeper with an agile pirouette around the ball at the top of
the D.

Henley then had a storming 30 minutes bridging half-time and leading to a further two goals from Farina again, and teenager, Fergus Heggie’s drag-flick skills.

In response, Phoenix found themselves playing a more physical style of play which didn’t yield dividends.

The final goal came in a super-sub moment. Two minutes after rejoining the pitch after a rest on the bench, youngster Alex Smith found himself well placed to fire home. In South Central Division 4 North, HENLEY 3rds went down to a 4-0 defeat at ABINGDON 2nds.

HENLEY 4ths got back to winning ways with a 4-0 home South Central Division 1 Thames triumph against SOUTH BERKS 5ths. Henley began the match strongly, dominating the first 15 minutes with their midfield and forward line keeping the visitors under continued pressure. This led to a series of short corners, the second of which converted by Mike Woolfrey. Calm interplay with midfielder Jody Measures created a clear shooting chance, which Woolfrey calmly slotted past the keeper. Further pressure wasn’t converted and Henley then started to make poor choices, putting themselves under pressure.

A poor clearance just before half-time led to a short corner for the visitors but young keeper, Alex Woolfrey howed his quality, with his reflex save meaning Henley went into the break 1-0 up.

Henley started the second half showing more composure and Ian Rechner soon scored his first, calmly creating space for himself and pushing the ball past the keeper. His second, once again resulted from Rechner creating space, this time at the top of the circle, before hitting a shot into the bottom corner to put Henley 3-0 up. Henley’s fourth goal came from Ollie Paice, who scored his second goal in two games with 10 minutes to go.

In South Central Division 3 Thames, HENLEY 5ths went down to a heavy 8-2 defeat against top-of-the-table STAINES 4ths.

The match started evenly, both sides moving the ball well before Staines broke the deadlock with a well-worked opener, and followed up much against the run of play with a second not soon after.

Henley pushed hard to get back into the contest, and were rewarded with a goal from a short corner. A quick and accurate injection from John Powell was stopped and struck home by Ed Earl.

Henley pushed for an equaliser, but were punished for their aggression falling to 3-1 by half-time.

Henley started the second period brightly, with promising attacks, especially down the right hand side where the contrasting styles of Johnny Williams and Sam Austin caused the opposition headaches.

However, Henley left the back line exposed, allowing Staines to score regularly. Henley’s attacking intent brought opportunities to score capped by a well-taken consolation goal for David Corke.