Oxhey Jets 2 (2) Woodley United 2 (0)
After the success of the previous Tuesday against play off chasing London Samura Rovers, United gave a first half performance that was a case of “after the Lord Mayor’s show” and found themselves two goals behind after eighteen minutes of play. That being said, Woodley created chances to have won the game on a day when all the leading teams in the division drew!
United kicked off and conceded a throw in the hosts’ right back position. From the resulting throw play was allowed to develop with a pass to Jets’ left back Lucio Cappicinni who ran from the halfway line into the Woodley penalty area to withstand a challenge before passing to Harvey Hoyte to shoot low inside Joe Hill’s right hand goal post, all within the first minute of play.
Harvey Collins’ free kick seven minutes later saw the ball fall to Kian Leahy who forced home goalkeeper Austin Ayres to block the shot for a corner kick. A careless Woodley pass in the eighteenth minute allowed the home team to attack down their right hand side and force Hill to parry the ball which Paulie Schuster reacted quickest to, to double Oxhey’s lead.
Woodley responded well but was guilty of not taking chances created. Lucas Taplin outran Leo Wolpert but shot weakly at Ayres to be followed by Connor Suckling showing good skill to control the ball only to curl his shot narrowly wide of Ayres’ left hand upright.
Despite the improvement in Woodley’s play, it needed Hill to block with his feet in the thirty ninth minute to prevent his team going further behind following Joe Brown outpacing the Woodley defence.
Six minutes into the second half United reduced the deficit when Kaylum Barlow steered a cross from the right across the goal which entered the net via the far post. This was followed by Collins heading over the crossbar and Suckling rounding Ayres in a one on one only for his shot to hit a recovering defender for a corner kick. From then resulting kick the ball fell to Leahy who shot directly at Ayres.
A series of United substitution followed as they continued to press for the equaliser that included Enow Ojong having a goal bound shot blocked. The eight first minute of the game needed Hill, who had been a virtual spectator in the second half, to block Hoyte shot with his foot.
The eightieth minute saw full back Cappicinni dismissed for a second caution. Woodley continued to press forward with the third minute of stoppage time seeing Ayres catch Hamblin’s shot under his cross bar to be followed a minute later with Dylan Clark crossing from the right to the far post where Taplin jumped with defenders to secure a point for the visitors.
Hill, Downes, Cammock, Hannachi (Simpson), Leahy (Maadini), Naicker, Hamblin, Collins (Ojong), Taplin, Suckling, Barlow (Van Spall)