Draw for Town

Woodley visited Rayners Lane and looked to maintain their excellent run of results heading into a busy Easter period.

The home side started well and forced Woodley to defend for long periods. The returning Craig Beales, in goal, was called into action very early on to tip over a curling effort. Beales was again needed to be at his very best to save at close range as the ball fell in the Woodley penalty area.

Woodley did have some of their own chances. Carl Davies had a header go wide and when Nick Edwards had his shot well saved and palmed to Davies three yards out, the chance was taken away by desperate defending.

Rayners Lane had the better of the first half chances but the second half was a different story.

It started with an excellent Jamie Fairchild pass setting leading scoring Davies clear on goal. He was cynically upended on the edge of the area and the defender was lucky to stay on the pitch because Davies had a ‘clear’ goal scoring opportunity.

On the break Rayners punished a misjudgement by Warren Baxter, but with a lot to do Jermaine Reyhill steered an unstoppable shot past Beales to give the home side the lead. After the goal, Woodley came back strongly and pegged the home team back for long periods.

Luke Williams was influential in delivering testing crosses but Rayners Lane defended well. Dan Jewell and Lyle Smith were introduced and both made impacts. Jewell delivered some dangerous crosses and the keeper James Christian, dealt well with one in particular as it flashed across goal.

Fairchild had the best chance of the game with twenty minutes to play. The ball dropped eight yards out with Christian on the ground, but his shot was tame and into the keepers grasp.

Woodley kept pushing and applying pressure during monsoon conditions as the heavens opened and left a lot of standing water. Smith eventually provided the break through when he converted Davies’ header back across goal from close range. With eight minutes to play the game became a battle in the tricky conditions and a draw seemed a fair result.

Beales, Baxter, Thomas, Edwards, Nightingale, Hiscock (Nunn), T Williams (Jewell), Hatton (Smith), Fairchild, Davies, L Williams