Oxford City 1s vs Sonning 2s – 24.10.09

On Saturday there was a Wally with a Brolly, however on this occasion it was not shielding an England Manager whilst the boys got spanked by Croatia… it was shielding Coach Tufty whilst he guided Sonning 2s to an impressive victory against high flying Oxford City 1st XI in the pouring rain.

After months out with injury the Club was happy to welcome junior back to relative fitness, and gave the 2s the responsibility of putting an arm round his shoulders to guide him back to competitive hockey.

On a very bouncy pitch which took a while for Sonning to gauge the bounce and turn, the home team started the game best and were rewarded by a break away goal. Sonning responded well with waves of attacks led by Dougie, Junior and Poults, which nearly resulted in an equaliser. Noting came of it however and Sonnign were thankful for some smart saves by the impressive Lawrence in goal again!

As half time approached it was clear the score was going to be 1-0 at the break, and so it ended. Sonning used the break to gather their thoughts and count how many of the very strong bench still hadn’t had a run around… some would say they were cowering from the rain… they would argue they just hadn’t been called upon yet. Joolsy clearly felt for the under-utilised bench so decided to stick his head right into the thick of it and certainly came off worst… crimson everywhere, which resulted in the totally unnecessary application of double bandages! No manning-up there…

So to the moment that turned the match… was it an inspired substitution, I’ll leave that for others to decide, but Lawrie stepped off the bench to coolly finish off a short corner rebound from Juniors thunderbolt strike. 1-1 and Sonning had their tails up!

Lawrie continued to lead the defence on a merry dance during his 15 minute powerplay… then retired to the comfort of the bench again… job done and in style. If only the shot from a ridiculous angle, had gone in the top corner as well… we would have been discussing goal of the season! Lawrie we know you meant it :o)

Sonning snatched the win in the dying minutes when Dougie and Junior combined majestically up front, resulting in Junior reversing the ball straight past the City keepers ear… his flailing attempt to stop it was nothing more than a token effort and Sonning were 3 points better off.

Good result away from home in the rain, and injured Tufty was able to walk away with a 100% record as coach, certainly better than Mr McClaren.