United suffer second consecutive defeat

Despite starting the match strongly with good possession in the home team’s half of the pitch, United fell behind when a through ball split the defence allowing forward Sam Wharton to slot pass the advancing Alex Reed after nine minutes.

The visitors’ responded well with positive moves by Charlie Oakley and Greg Beckett and it was these two that set up Josh Drew on nineteen minutes only for Harry Whitehead to smother the shot.

This was the start of a period of end to end penalty area action with Abingdon failing to capitalise on a misunderstanding in the Woodley defence, Drew shooting wide and Reed comfortably collecting a tame header from Kyle Moss before Moss fired a free kick wide in the twenty seventh minute.

Oakley saw a header cleared of the goal line from a Beckett cross but the forward was flagged offside while Reed denied Wharton a second to leave the hosts leading by the single goal at the half time interval.

As with previous games this season Woodley started the second half well. Oakley saw a shot deflected for a corner which Reid Brown failed to connect with when the ball was played into the penalty area at the second attempt while Nat Robinson was causing problems on the left flank.

Although Jasan Smith hit Woodley’s cross bar, it was the visitors in the ascendency with Beckett seeing Whitehead parry a shot before tipping a Drew shot over the cross bar and saving a Michael Porter header from a Robinson cross

However, this pressure was undone when Jared Jones extended the lead with a header with eighteen minutes remaining. This prompted a double substitution for Woodley with Carl Prestidge and Marvin Hinds introduced as the visitors went three at the back and Robinson playing up front with Oakley. Hinds injected pace down the right wing but his crosses were evading his forwards but the changes while brining pressure did not result in goals.

The home team completed the scoring two minutes from the end when they capitalised on a mistake at the half way line allowing Graham Bryan to run unchallenged to beat Reed.

Reed, Greenwood, Turner (Prestidge), Horscroft, Brown, Porter, Robinson (Edwards), Davies (Hinds), Oakley, Drew, Beckett Sub not used A Kamara