Old Oak recorded back to back victories for the first time since mid october with a 3-1 victory over second bottom H-town. Playing H-town for the third time this season following to prior victories in the league and the cup, manager Gunnell had arguably his strongest squad of players to pick from all season with only Shadbolt & Burton missing from the previous game against AFC Marlow. Electing to keep faith with the remaining players who won at Marlow, gunnell added Carpenter and Ryan coker to the starting eleven. A change in shape saw a 3-5-2 formation employed with Janes, Gunnell and Carpenter forming the back 3, the midfield 5 remained unchanged (piercey, ebberson, roberts, rodriguez and wilkinson) although wilkinson and rodriguez were tasked with wing back roles, James hall having scored 2 goals in the previous game was retained upfront alongside the returning Coker. There was also a place on the bench for Shuan coker who would look to make his debut having signed at the end of January. Starting the game brightly and settling in to the adjusted formation the opening exchanges were played in midfield with Piercey finding plenty of space in advanced midfield role and controlling the play releasing wilkinson who play a couple of decent balls into the stride of Hall, however H-Town did well to avert the danger, the breakthrough wasnt far away, on 6 minutes Chris summers claiming a first assist, a long kick forward caused havoc in the h-town defence, hall forcing his way through before calmly finishing with his weaker foot(if you can call it that) a great finish from a player who is showing what a great asset he is to the team 1-0. Game settled down into a midfield battle both teams efforts to create chances where denied by some good defending by both teams, it has to be said H-Town were slightly on top, on one occasion a last ditch tackle by janes denied the opposition winger a good shooting oppurtunity. H- Town also forced a series of corners, one of which fell to there right back on the edge of the area, having not been closed down he shot well over the crossbar. Half way through the half Carpenter pulled up with a hamstring injury which had affected him in last weeks training session, he was replaced with Hawken which co-incided with a change in formation to a 4-4-1-1, Roberts moving to right back, Janes to left back with Gunnell and Hawken the centre backs. Wilkinson continued to be a threat from the right hand side playing decent through balls into the channels and further good defending by the away side resulted in a succesion of corners and long throws, gunnell up from back winning several flick ons which were well dealt with by the keeper or just fell out of reach of a team mate. With the game seemingly heading towards half time with no further incident, a throw in down the right hand caused controversy, Coker and a h-town midfielder tangled, the latter being floored following the clash, several players got involved and after some hand bags the ref called coker over and produced a red card, it looked at worst a yellow something which the opposition later agreed with. Down to 10 men, half time couldnt come quick enough to allow the team to regroup. Gunnell and Mcneill set the team up to play the second half in 4-4-1 formation with Hall playing as a lone front man. The second half begun with H-Town keen to seize the initiative the extra man had given them, intially denied by some determined defending and good organisation by the make shift back 4, Janes doing well in an unfamilar left back position, the equalizer did however arrive on 52 minutes, a slight misjudgement by the normally dependable Hawken saw the ball bounce over his head into the path of the striker who expertly poked the ball passed the outrushing summers 1-1. The fruastration began to set with the ref seemingly giving every decision in favour of the opposition, several seemingly fair tackles were being punished whilst H-Town where being given the benefit of the doubt for several heavy tackles, one restulting in a nasty ankle injury to Piercey who was booked shortly after for his protestation. On 65 minutes the decision was taken to go for broke, knowing that only wins will do for the rest of the season, Gunnell and mcneill decided to got to a 3-4-2 with Shuan coker on for his debut to replace Roberts. Withing minutes the continuing poor decision making of the official saw a third card for the oak players, Coker on debut picking up a booking for dessent. The aggitation had spread to the touchline with Mcneill lucky to get away with a warning for his comments regarding the ref's perfomance, Gunnell also let himself down with and unsavoury spat with goalkeeper Summers. The game eventually settled down with the refferee awarding a free kick to us 40 yards from goal at the angle, Piercey deliving a quality cross which avoided everyone including a sliding Gunnell at the back post. H-Town were left fruastrated moments later when they had a goal disallowed for a foul in the build up , despite there complaints it appeared to be a justified desion and then were denied by and excellent save from goalkeeper summers getting down to his left hand side to tip wide a goal bound strike. Manager gunnell made his final change with Fuller replacing Rodriguez who had an unusually quiet game. With 15 minutes to goal oak forced two corners in quick succesion, the second one being hacked away for a throw in, wilkinson launched a long throw into the path of hall who turned and fired past the keeper, another quality finish, wilkinson must also recieve praise as he was quick to notice hall in a yard of space 2-1. H-Town now under pressuere to find an equaliser made 2 quick changes, if anything this seemed to have a negative affect as they did not threaten the oak goal in the remaining minutes, Ebberson who had and excellent game was covering a lot of ground and alongside piercey providing and excellent shield to the back four who themselves were now defending well. In the final minutes of the game a long ball out of defence fell to shuan coker on the half way line who out muscled the defender and ran towards goal before rounding the goalie and rolling into an empty net, again another well taken goal and one which seeled the points 3-1. The final minute of the game saw one final half chance for H-Town with their right back sending a wayward cross out of play for a goal kick, the ref blowing up for fall time in what had been one of the more eventful games of the season. Great battling qualities shown by all again today, we were not at our best by a long way given the circumstances this is not really a surprise. Everyone can be proud of the way the dug in today and got what could be a vital 3 points. Man of the Match today went to James Hall for his display up front, non stop running, making himself available for the ball at all times and not to mention his two quality finishes.
