Town went into this game on the back of a dissapointing performance the week before looking to get back to winning ways and were boosted by the return of last years star player Ben christie returning from Southcott taking his place on the right side of midfield, elsewhere Brooks was moved to left back at the expense of Dave Migliori, with oxley moving over one to centre back and Greenall getting a start at right back, further up the pitch Wingrave came in to replace the injured edwards. There was good news amongst the subs to as Andrews returned after 5 weeks out.
Leighton started brightly and after 6 minutes the home keeper was forced into a wonder save tipping a mattacks volley onto the post. however this didnt last long as Oldhill started to get on top of the game, helped by Town almost playing a 4-2-4 formation with the away defence struggling to cope with the constant overflow of players coming forward, and with the wingers so high town had to resort to long balls to try and connect the defence and midfield, a lot different to Towns normal style of play. Despite this Oldhill didnt really trouble the goal except for a couple of dives from their striker trying to win some ridicolous free kicks close to the goal. They had a penalty claim turned down when sibley saved bravely at the feet of their striker taking him out in the process. In fact when Oldhill did make the breakthrough it came completely by suprise as a high ball into the box got lost in the sun as Sibley missed it all together in a 'david james' style howler to gift them the lead. After this Leighton really had there backs to the wall and with both full backs playing against two men it was becoming increasingly hard to contain the opposition and when brooks was under pressure a miss kick across the goal found the oldhill striker who wen one on one with sibley saw his effort saved but the rebound ended up at another opposition player who tapped home, 2-0 and looking like it could be more. More and more attacks came and Sibley produced a couple of good saves aswell as some good last ditch defending by Oxley and Migliori kept the score at 2-0 at half time.
In the second half Town came out fighting at the beginning and started to threaten the home goal and 10 minutes in won a penalty when Mattacks sensing a few players around threw himself to the ground, up stepped penalty kng Christie to mark his second debut with a goal and get Town back in it. But for some reason this didnt give town the kick forward they needed and Oldhill came out stronger once again putting the away goal under serious pressure, regurly having two on one down the wings they were getting a lot of possesion and despite the best efforts of the defence who were throwing themselves at everything and Neale an Marshall being outnumbered in front of them they could not prevent the wave and wave of attack on the town goal. The two or 3 times Town did get forward the final ball was suprisingly lacking in any quality. Brooks was then replaced in the defence by Andrews and Greenall by Morris in an attempt to shore things up. It seemed that from every corner or free kick the opposition striker had set himself a target of injurying the Town keeper and almost succeded a few times with Sibley forced into a save at his near post headbutting the post in the process. Then moments later with Keeper getting no protection from the shocking referee, Sibley caught the ball cleanly from a corner but the opposition player ran like a rhino into him cleaning him out and forcing him off with a leg injury moments later. In stepped Morris minutes into his debut being forced to take the gloves, with the opposition trying to give him the same treatment. Town conceded a 3rd moments from the end when an attack broke down and oldhill broke crossed the ball in to oneof 3 unmarked players who smashed a header home to complete the victory. A disspointing performance and result to boot ensured a bad day at the office for town, roll on next week.
