Sonning 4s v Men's 2s

Sonning Mens 4th Team 2 - 2 Leighton Buzzard Mens 2nd Team

Leighton made the long trip to Sonning more in hope than expectation due to only having ten players available. However the team knew they were in good form after their win against West Hampstead last week. After a strenuous warm up, Buzzard started on the front foot and nearly scored in the first minute when the returning Stuart Retford pressurised the Sonning defenders, with his resulting deflection going just past the far post. Leighton continued to press high and forced Sonning into a number of areas and were unfortunate not to make their dominance count.

After ten minutes, Sonning started to grow into the game and it became stretched. From one break Buzzard were able to take the lead. Tim Bellamy started the move with an incisive pass to Craig Westley, who drove the ball to the top of the D. He subsequently slipped the ball across the D to Stuart Retford who found Fraser Retford who calmly slotted the ball past the on rushing goalkeeper.

The goal only served to give Sonning a wake up call. They came back strongly and it took an outstanding double save by Jim Galloway to keep Buzzard in front. Following a hard hit into the D by Sonning's striker there were number of deflections and Galloway plunged to his right to push the ball away. The ball dropped to their left winger who could only rattle the near post with Galloway crawling the ball to safety.

In the last minute of the half Sonning nearly equalised when their talented striker juggled the ball past a number of players, flicking it over Galloway only for his strike partner to swing and miss at the back post.

The half time whistle came soon after and Buzzard talked about how the opposition would come out hard in the second half. They were not wrong as Sonning took control in the first ten minutes, transferring the ball across the pitch and moving Buzzard's ten players around. With Leighton's energies starting to wane, their concentration lapsed and Sonning's striker finished having been left unmarked in the middle of the D to make it 1-1.

Worse was soon to follow. Two minutes later, Sonning forced a lucky short corner and after a goal bound shot was stopped on the line it was adjudged to be a penalty flick. Up stepped the Sonning striker who buried it into the side netting to make it 2-1. Buzzard were rocking and it was only thanks to a wonderful goal line clearance from Dan Wright that the deficit was only one goal.

Following a break in play, Buzzard had chance to regroup and started to play like they had in the first half. Their exceptional flowing hockey made it look like the opposition had less men on the pitch than Leighton. With Sonning under pressure the game began to get a little feisty with one of their player lucky not to be cautioned for raising a hand to Wright.

The ten men of Buzzard called on all their reserves of energy with the injured Martin Bailey, Will Jenkinson and Will Riley continuing to make surging runs into the opposition half. With these runs along with piercing passes from the midfield to the strikers it continued to look as though Leighton would get their well deserved equaliser.

With the even increasing pressure, came penalty corners. Following one of these Buzzard managed to get their goal with Bellamy taking his personally tally to four goals in four games. The goal was a carbon copy from the game against Gerrards Cross with David Wavish having his strike closed down. The ball ballooned into the air and as it bounced Bellamy caught it in the sweet spot and it smacked into the backboard before the keeper and defenders had chance to move.

Leighton pushed for a winner in the final moments with shots from Stuart Retford and Jenkinson flashing just wide. The final whistle blew and following their heroic efforts Buzzard had taken another point. Back at Vandyke next week, Leighton will continue their push for fourth.