Old Oak made it 7 wins from 8 and remain in third place 1 point behind league leaders AFC Marlow with a game in hand.
Oak coming into the came having every reason to be confident of picking up full points, with the opposition routed to the bottom of the table having failed to collect points from their opening 10 league fixtures. In addition to this manager Gunnell had his strongest squad of players for a number of weeks with the returning Rodriguez, Coker and Roberts who all missed last weeks win against chinnor.
Against a side in disarray Old oak soon seized the initiative having almost all the early possession and forcing a couple of early corners and long range efforts which came to nothing. An early goal arrived when the impressive butler played a defence splitting pass into the path of coker who ran on to it holding of the centre backs challenge before calmly rounding the goalie and slotting home for his 5th league goal of the season 1-0. The pressure did not let up with JP going close with a couple of long range efforts whilst the final through ball was lacking at times and the tendency to overplay had crept in. The second goal arrived when a piercey corner was not dealt with by the home defence, the ball bouncing around before Wilkinson's inadvertent touch laid the ball to carter who flicked in from 3 yards out 2-0. As with almost every Oak game this season the floodgates opened temporarily with a further 2 goals arriving within the next 8 minutes, firstly another JP corner was not dealt with and Carpenter up from the back turned and fired through a crowd of players for his second goal of the season 3-0 and then Carter added a 4th, the goal of the game, following some excellent play down the left hand side winger Shadbolt produce a delightful cross which evaded the keeper and defenders and was met by a sliding carter who steered the ball into the roof of the net 4-0. The remainder of the half could have seen further goals for the Oak, several players going close whilst the opposition barely left there own half, the rare ball forward dealt with easily by the new look back 3.
Half time arrived, with the enforced change, family commitments curtailing another impressive display by coker, seeing him replaced by centre back Burton. The second half began in the same fashion as the first, oak having attack after attack with several good chances going begging, whilst a couple of decent saves by the opposition keeper frustrated shadbolt and Wilkinson from distance. The fifth goal arrived on 60 minutes and a first goal for new striker Hall, reacting quickest after a goal mouth scramble to cleverly clip the ball past the keeper and defender on the goaline 5-0. The non stop pressure continued and Carter completed his first Oak hat rick cleverly flicking the ball home from close range following another excellent delivery from a piercey corner 6-0. With the game well and truly wrapped up further chances where squandered with people taking the wrong option of shooting when a pass to a team mate was a better option, a times quite frustrating to watch as we could of easily double the score line today, that said the 7th goal arrived when piercey's 25 yard strike was only pushed out into the path of the on rushing carter who added his 4th of the game and 13th in competitions for the season 7-0. At full time the ref summed up the game well stating a 16-0 win would not have been an injustice.
Well done to all who played, good to get a clean sheet after conceding too many goals over the last few weeks. I still think there is significant room for improvement collectively and from some individuals, we will continue to work hard and improve areas of weakness. Today I have given Man of the match to Adam Butler who looked assured in defence and linked play well with midfield and strikers.
