Tough day for the boys in white with a trek to the depths of Birkenhead to play Oxton 1s, grounding out a game 2-0 down to 2-2 with a great show of character and prestige from everyone.

The day started out with a drive down to Oxton which would be considered the easiest part of the afternoon but for a certain Mr Tompkins who struggles with basic SAT NAV use, he began heading up the M56 towards Stockport, fleeing from the Liverpudlian side along with all of the uni students on board. Similarly, Darius organising a meet time for those in need…and turning up 15+ minutes late(certainly NOT the first time)

With the worry of tardiness mulling across TKs face, the news the game would be pushed back 30minutes later than planned became a relief for the man in blue.

All joking aside, the usual team talks began splitting into our positional lines. Some questionable subjects from the defence asking how Candymans flat mate was.

Back in as a team, the mighty Khares sprung his mighty wisdom which didn’t have its typical effect due to a keen and eager Andrews butting in his knowledge and ‘experience’.

Either way we went out knowing our plan of action and what we were doing. With a Brooky push back, the first whistle blew. A couple of sharp attacks from the the boys into the oppositions half got shut down swiftly. At this point Oxton retained possession around the back for long passages of play with the Brooklands front 3 forcing errors leading to several occasions of their back 4 passing the ball off the side of the pitch. With little to show for the hard work in the press, it appeared we switched off a little bit allowing more balls through the centre of the pitch.

Still no major worries for the lads as Greek seemed to have a telescopic stick that covered either half of the pitch at any one time.

Comfortable, but daunting everyone none the less.

A quick attack from Brooklands turned over the base line lead to large open spaces in the midfield as we all tracked back. A short bomb in from the Oxton fullback into open space lead to their captain having a relatively free run into the left side of our D. Following a good reaction save to ground from Max, the rebound fell unfortunately to their centre forward who had an easy slap from the flick spot to put them ahead. 1-0

Disheartened from the setback, everyone wanted to make amends to their mindset following a sluggish draw 2 weeks prior and still come back with the 3 points.

Sadly the following bits of play weren’t too dissimilar to the ones of the first goal with gaps being left open to play into in the middle of the pitch which in turn lead to short corners and squeaky bum time for the travelling team.

After brilliant defence from 2 short corners including a brilliant stop from a straight drag, a low drag to head side and a deflection from a runner beat our men on the line setting the score line to 2-0 at the 35 minute mark.

It was clear that tactical changes needed to be made, Megamind on the sideline used that big head of his to come up with a Sir Alex Ferguson master plan of a completely new outletting shape. With everyone in full trust and understanding of the game plan we awaited for the whistle to be blown to get back out there.

Things started to shape up for the away side with everyone ‘running around more’ and using the engines that we were promised the older Oxton team didn’t have. Our attacks seemed more progressive, raising the questions of who the gaffa called at half time to gain this sudden influx of knowledge?

Either way, possession higher up the pitch lead to a charge up the side line from Tompkins with a cut inside ball to HB who trapped the ball fully out stretched on the reverse stick placing an inch perfect ball to the fresh set of legs up top Dudsey who finished off the move with a very tidy slot to the near post. Everyone’s spirits lifted and saw some light at the end of the tunnel. 2-1

With general confusion of the Oxton side on how to break down our attacks and counter the masterclass from the side lines, we continually attacked for several phases of play however not ending up as fruitful as we planned out. Jeff’s and Andrews showing their experience down the baselines beating players and putting balls in lead to 9 of the home sliders in the D protecting everything.

The high pressure lead to players tiring and allowing a reset in tempo to the game. An ebbing of possession gave us those few minutes of rest to our legs for another lethal 15 minutes.

Morris was making killer leads around the D picking up the ball and beating players leading to shots and shorts. None of which converted but the pressure was back on. A promotion for Shukla to centre forward to show his attack prowess took a toll on his legs as he got lapped by the umpires on his way back to defend. A swift change to Jeffs along side Andrews and Dudsey finished up a tidy move along the base line with another short corner being won by the week old adult Ethan.

Setting up with a double castle from the top, Virabi came trotting to the top to help put the lads back even. A perfect routine from injection to deflection from Andrews, Dudsey, Virabi and Jeffs with a head side finish lead to an exuberant celebration putting us level with 5mins to go. 2-2

Following our second goal we kept going knowing that those 3 points were ours for the taking. Sadly no fruit came from our labours leaving the final score line 2-2.

A real step up in character from everyone today and hoping to bring forward the way we played in the second half into next week.

MOM- Ethan H-B (who bares no Ed Sheeran or Seb Yates resemblance)
DOD- Tompkins/Virabi (to be confirmed next week due to chug avoidance)