Five Star United Reserves

United returned from Cookham with maximum points following a five star performance that showed plenty of positive forward play while working hard as a unit to deny Cookham any real opportunities to trouble keeper Jon Norris.

As expected the home team started strong but poor defensive play by the hosts on ten minutes allowed United to attack down the left flank and the cross fall kindly for unmarked Jack Waller to open the scoring from twelve yards.

With United preventing Cookham from getting into a rhythm the match became “stop start” with free kicks and cautions as the hosts became increasingly frustrated. It was from one free kick that Woodley played into the penalty area and resulted in a spot kick being awarded in the first minute of stoppage time at the end of the first half that Tom Male converted to double the lead.

The opening spell of the second half saw the visitors defended solidly but effectively won the game on fifty eight minutes when a rare attack saw Harrison Wilks score the team’s third goal. This deflated Cookham allowing Woodley to take the initiative which they did with Male scoring from a Jamie Smith cross nine minutes later and Wilks completing the scoring on seventy one minutes from second half sub Joe Danelian’s assist.

With the points won the match died as the pitch became long and players tired and defences sat deeper but credit to the Reserves for the resilience in keeping a clean sheet.