Hook Horton Res v Faringdon Town – 4/2/17
After a long wait for a fixture Town finally got a game, a long trip to a side lower than us in the table. A must win game for us. Preparation for the game has been helped with the commitment to training over the last few months, we felt ready to go.
The game was touch and go whether it would be played, due to the recent rain and the pitch didn’t look to bad.
We started slowly and were under a bit of pressure for the first ten minutes, Hook’s long ball and crosses were testins us. We came through it and started to get the ball down and play. At times we played some good football on a pitch that cut up from the first minute, a real heavy, sticky pitch. The energy was sapped from everyone just trying to turn and push-off.
After 20 minutes we got our goal, determination from our midfield got the ball back, it was slipped into Chris Wills who slotted the ball through to Liam Tudway. His determination got him to the ball in a 50/50 challenge with the keeper, Tuddy just got there first and managed to force the ball in. Town 1 up.
Christian Wills found himself free in the box for a header following a cross by Darren Sawala but couldn’t direct it goalward and a good chance went begging. Ten mins later town got their second, a great deep cross from the right by Will Bazen, found Ross Packham running in at the back post and his side-foot volley ended up in the corner of the net, his first Faringdon goal. 2-0 up.
With 5 minutes left of the half Town switched off for the first time and got found out, a pacey run down the right resulted in a shot which town keeper Justin Yates saved well but the follow-up was not dealt with and Hook got a goal back. 2-1 just in half time.
This gave the home team abit of hope at the break and Town spoke about how they were going to deal with the up coming battle in the second half. We were totally disciplined and determined in the second half and were putting ourselves about. We didn’t switch off at all and looked comfortable. Dealing with Hook Nortons threat and looking to get forward ourselves.
Liam Tudway found himself unlucky not to get his second when he had a carbon copy of his first but this one coming back off the post. A couple of superb tackles from Seb, Joe and Robbie kept our defence on their toes. With ten minutes left town made their last two substitutions with Drew and Jamie coming in and doing a great job in holding the ball up and gaining possession.
We saw the game out and deserved our win.
Final Score: Hook Horton Res 1-2 Faringdon Town
We didn’t get sucked in to our opposition like we have done at times this year, we played some good football and worked really hard as a team, we dug deep and ground out the result. We only switched off for the one 5 minute period where we got found out but for 85 mins we were on it as a team. The whole squad deserves a great deal of credit for a number of reasons and hopefully this is a good start to our second half of the season.
Man of the match: Captain Robbie Harrington. Superb captains performance
