With the Royals all proudly wearing our fantastic new kit, it came as a huge delight to see us turn in our most accomplished display so far. From the early opening exchanges we showed a real determination to battle for these shirts. We were in the ascendency from the outset and the home keeper had to go full stretch to keep out a curling Sam Hainge free kick.Ryan swapped with Sam to give us a little more strength in the middle and Will Hawtin went out wide on the right where he was a constant threat on the wing demanding the ball . If Will was having a good game down his side then Ned was looking equally as strong on the left. Will Giles began his first game for the Royals and it must be said he more than impressed at left back where the whole defence were comfortably handling the 2 pacy Eynsham strikers. It then came as a surprise to go a goal behind and even more of a surprise to concede a penalty when Lewis was adjudged to have somehow pushed his marker in the box. This seemed an extremely harsh call and everyone present was mystified at what the ref was blowing for. Our play continued to be positive with the central midfield of Ryan and Joe working hard to get us back on level terms. When the equaliser came it was no more than we deserved. From a position on the right the ball was swept into the feet of Sam. With a quick turn Sam spotted Neds run and played an inviting pass into his path. The defender was quick to recover but before he could clear Ned dispossessed him and cut in toward the goal where he unleashed a drive into the roof of the net. We had one let off before the break when for literally the only time in the game the big centre half headed wide from an Eynsham corner. Our four defenders of Will ,Luke, Lewis and Harlie then later joined by Dom all had a strong and tiring afternoon. Chris had another fine match in goal confidently taking catches and very tough to beat again.
The second half began as the first had finished with us having the upper hand. We lost Will G early in the half and took a few minutes to settle with the home side having a short spell of pressure where we had to be at our best in defence. From a lightening quick counter the ref had another major decision to call. Sam raced on to Doms through ball holding off the challenge of the huge centre back, as he went to pull the trigger the defender piled into the back of Sam knocking him away from the ball. Unbelievably the ref failed to spot this red card offence in the penalty area hmmmm. We then went incredibly close to going in front. Tyler beat the offside trap and was denied by the onrushing keeper but he kept going and squared into the middle where Sam hit a fierce volley from point blank. The keeper somehow kept it out at the second attempt. Within seconds Will H fed Sam whose thunderbolt came back down onto the line off the underside of the bar our luck was to get even worse. Ryan skipped past three opponents and charged into the area with some brilliant footwork. The same burly centre half then wiped out Ryan with what was almost a rugby charge knocking Ryan sideways and a good two metres inside the area. This time the ref had to blow but amazingly decided the foul had been outside the box. Luke curled the free kick over the wall but the wrong side of the post Eynsham had dodged another bullet. Soon after and our worst fears came true. Eynshams number 10 picked up the loose ball just inside his own half with an amazing turn of foot he put on the afterburners and showed a clean pair of heels to our defence. Keeping his composure he guided a great shot in off the post and with less than ten minutes remaining we were behind when we should have been ahead. Chris then came to our rescue with a great stop giving us a lifeline as the minutes ticked by. Ollie on for Joe and Lewis on for the injured Ryan were in the thick of everything as we pushed for the second equaliser. When Will found Lewis C on the right wing our winger still had lots of work to do. Lew got to the byline then turned inside to spot Sam in the box. Sam drove back to the endline and whipped in another brilliant cross for Ned to come ghosting in at the far post and to everyones delight he smashed home for his and our second of the day. Time ran out for us to find a winner but our fighting spirit we showed today will keep us in good stead for the rest of the year, really well played today lads
