Old Oak put to bed a 2 match losing run with a 4-3 away victory against opponents they had hammered 11-1 just a number of weeks ago.
Heading in to the game Oak were strengthen by the return of key players Piercey, Ebberson, Carpenter & Shadbolt, although this was offset by the absences of striker Coker, winger Rodriguez & a long term injury picked up by Janes. Oak set up in there standard 4-4-2 formation with the versatile Gunnell moving upfront to play the target man role, 'Ken' Barlow earning his first league start of the season at right back and burton and new signing butler becoming the 7th different central defensive partnership of the season.
On a pitch best described as average the free flowing football the Oak had played seem a distant memory with the tough conditions proving difficult to string together consecutive passes, however there were early chances with chinnor looking vunerable at the back and a couple of early corners could have easily come to more, and carter unlucky to see his looping effort rebound of a post and somehow spin away to safety. The sucker punch arrived after 6 minutes a clever ball down the left hand side just evaded barlows head and allowed the chinnor striker to race towards goal at and angle, as summers closed down he cleverly lofted into the unguarded net 0-1. Oak continued to press despite the early set back gunnel playing a neat one two and firing just past the far post, whilst and excellent shadbolt corner evaded everyone when the faintest of touches would have levelled the scores. Chinnor where increasingly limited to counter attacks which broke down either with an over hit pass or some decent defending by carpenter(heading the ball of the line) and butler. As the 'Oak' continued to press a deserved equaliser arrived on 27 minutes gunnel collecting the ball out wide having beaten his man to the ball before cutting back the ball to the on rushing carter who finished with ease from 8 yards out 1-1. As so often for Oak this season, the first goal seems to bring further goals in quick succession, within 3 minutes we were ahead, excellent work by Ebberson in midfield who battled tirelessly before playing a ball out wide, gunnell again showing great strength to muscle the defender of the ball rolled it into the path of carter who unselfishly picked out Piercey who calmly poked the ball passed the keeper 2-1. Oak now firmly in control added a third on 40 minutes, and Ebberson shot from 20 yards was pushed wide of the target, carter reacting far quicker than the chinnor defence managed to cut the ball back for a simple tap in for Piercey's second of the match and 10th goal of the season 3-1. The onslaught continued with the 4th goal arriving a minute before half time, carpenter with and excellent 40 yard pass which carter did well to control with his hand before calmly firing passed the chinnor keeper 4-1.
The second half brought a complete turn around in the home sides fortunes, despite appearing to be in disarray at half time they forced a corner with in 30 seconds of the restart, the corner being fired across the goal mouth and taking an unfortunate bounce and being turned into his own net by Shadbolt 4-2. The game then settled down into a similar pattern to the first half Oak dominating possession with the occasional counter attack causing some problems. On 55 minutes James Hall made his debut for the oak replacing the excellent carter who had 2 goals & assists to his name. Several more chances fell the oaks way, Wilkinson unlucky to see an attempted overhead kick drift wide, Gunnell blazing over from 8 yards out and Hall going close on a couple of occasions. Another new signing Preston made his second appearance from the bench replacing Barlow at right back, shortly followed by assistant manager Mcneill replacing Wilkinson for the final 10 minutes. With the game seemingly in the bag a hopeful punt forward caused confusion at the back allowing the chinnor striker to poke pass Summers 4-3. The final few minutes saw Chinnor have there best spell with oak unable to clear there lines properly and Summers making an excellent point blank save. The final whistle eventually came with anyone associated with old oak relieve and happy to end the losing run.
Reality is we made this a lot harder than it should have been, individual errors are costing us too many goals at the moment and we will need to address this as we will get punished by better sides. That said it was a battle today, conditions where awful and this perhaps didn't allow us to get the ball down and play like we usually do. Good performances by Carpenter(both in defensively and going forward), piercey and ebberson in the centre of midfield, by Gunnell who linked play well in an unfamiliar position, however Man of the match this week goes to Luke Carter for his two goals and 2 assists, easily his best performance for the Oak.
