Season starts all square

After last Saturday’s postponed match, Woodley got their league campaign underway with the first ever meeting between the two sides. Yateley came into the game on the back of winning the Premier Division of Thames Valley Premier League last season with a 100 per cent record and an opening day win at home to London Samurai Rovers.

It took Woodley only two minutes to breach the visitors defence with Connor Suckling opening the scoring. The opening fifteen minutes saw the hosts on the front foot with Manny Adu-Essah forcing Adrian Giles to make a save and Sucking having a shot blocked following Frankie Boamah’s long pass from defence finding Ciaron Carolan who in turn passed to Suckling.

However, Yateley gradually found their footing in the match and wrestled control of the midfield and start to asset pressure on the home defence who were thankful to keeper Alex Londors for ensuring they had the lead at half time. Londors efforts included blocking a shot from Brad Timson with his legs to see the ball ricochet of the cross bar and cleared in the twenty seventh minute while four minutes from the half time break Londors go down low to his right to finger tip a shot, through a mass of players, away for a corner kick.

A rare Woodley attack saw the ball played to Connor Richardson but the winger was unable to control the ball that was subsequently cleared while the same play saw a goal bound shot blocked in the fourth minute of stoppage time.

Woodley started the second half in a positive manner with Carolan firing over within a minute of the restart following a cross from Rafa Brandao and Dan Watkiss putting a free kick over the cross bar. The visitors levelled in the fifty third minute when a long free kick from Dan Gosling found Christopher Boutros to head a looping ball over Londors.

Last season’s leading scorer Sid Gbla was introduced in the fifty seventh minute and with Suckling started to cause the visiting defence problems but saw chances go wide or blocked. The game became stretched with both teams looking for the important third goal which came in the ninetieth minute with Bradley Timson converting Bradley Bolton’s assist.

The lead was short lived as four minutes later Suckling levelled beating Giles in a one on one situation and then a minute later the same player a shot go narrowly wide following a Woodley corner. This was the last action of the match with both teams sharing the points.

Londors, Davies, Massaquoi (Monterio), Hok, Watkiss, Boamah, Adu Essah (Brandao), Nwokobia (Kalejaiye), Carolan (Gbla), Suckling, Richardson Sub not used: Williams