Old Oak maintained our 100% league record courtesy of a superb performance against Chinnor Athletic Reserves, who prior to the game had been 1 place above the home side. Finding the opposition net 11 times with no fewer than 8 different goal scorers & unfortunate own goal by a chinnor defender.
The game started in awful conditions, persistent and a cold wind, however this did not appear to affect the Oak lads as we made our customary strong start, playing some decent football being orchestrated by JP and Ebbo through the middle with excellent support on the wings from attacking full back Carpenter and Wide man Wilkinson. A few half chances were presented but majority of the opening 10 minutes saw some questionable offside calls against Coker and Carter, other than this the only other moment of note was a yellow card for the chinnor centre back for dissent to the ref. The breakthrough arrived on 13 minutes, a sweeping move involving JP, Ebberson, Janes and Wilkinson saw a cross flash across the ball falling at the feet of coker who spotted the on rushing Carpenter who latched onto the pass to drive home from 20+ yards home despite the best efforts of the away sides goalie. For the next 20 minutes there was a lull in play, the ball bouncing around in the midfield with neither side getting a firm grip on the game, a Wilkinson free kick clipped to the back post was the closest to Oak extending our lead. Just after the half hour Oak quickly extended their lead, Piercey clipping in a free kick which was meet with another superb Ebberson header which found the far corner and left the keeper with no chance. A third goal followed within 2 minutes, JP playing a delightful pass through the centre of the chinnor defence, Wilkinson having made a clever run was in danger of wasting the chance when he was pushed wide of goal, however he showed composure to calmly roll past the keeper and defender for 3-0. In truth the margin of the lead was probably flattering and this was proven as Chinnor had an excellent 10 minute spell up until half time, oak unable to get out of there own half were thankful to some good defending by the new look back four of Gunnell, Burton, Janes and Carpenter. With a minute of the half remaining the ball broke down the left hand side, a cross was wiped in which somehow missed the everyone bar the chinnor striker who headed in from 5 yards out at the back post. Oak had time to kick off and the whistle was blown for half time. 3-1
The half time interval came and went, manager gunnell and assistant mcneill agreeing it couldn't have come at a better time with chinnor having scored and enjoyed a decent ten minute spell. The second half began and the momentum immediately swung back in old oak's favour, carpenter racing down the left wing put in a deep cross too the back post where Wilkinson volleyed in via a slight deflection to restore the three goal advantage. A fifth goal wasn't long in coming, Carter defecting an attempted clearance to Coker who found the net with a superb first time finish from the edge of the area. With Old oak on the rampage Rodriguez skilfully beat his man to provide an excellent cross which was meet with a superb header into the top corner of the net, unfortunately for Chinnor it was there centre half who had provided the finish for 6-1. Old oak's second half pressure continued with Carter frustrated when a couple of chances went begging, before the management team made there first sub the impressive Burton replaced by Barlow. The change resulted in Janes moving into a centre half position, this did not stop him bursting forward on 68 minutes and thumping home a shot from all off 35 yards via the underside of the crossbar. Once the celebrations had calmed down and janes had finished telling his manager 'that's how you strike a ball' Oak quickly added an 8th, JP picking the ball up in midfield from a coker pass and scored with a clinical finish from 25 yards out. With and 8-1 lead Manager gunnell withdrew JP and Javi from the action replacing them with Shadbolt and Roberts. A further 3 minutes had passed when a goal mouth scramble resulted in carter having a shot blocked before Matt Gunnell rolled the ball across the goalmouth for Wilkinson to complete his hatrick despite the linesman flagging for offside. Number 10 arrived 2 minutes later, Carter who had been frustrated all day added himself to the scorers list finishing well from an excellent cross by shadbolt. The final goal mouth action saw a cross only partially cleared by the goalie fall to the feet of Roberts who calmly side footed past him for number 11, a look of shock appeared on the midfielders face as this was only the second goal of his entire career!! The whistle went shortly afterwards confirming and 11-1 victory.
This was a well deserved victory, we were outstanding in the second half, and wasted very few chances. Everyone can be proud of the way they played today. Make no mistake this sends out a warning to the rest of the division that we are serious title contenders. Man of the match today could have gone to a number of people, Matt carpenter for his excellent attacking play, JP and Pete for controlling midfield, Wilko for an excellent hat rick, but today I have picked Ryan coker for his not stop running upfront and his excellent goal.
