A Few Scares but Ultimately Another Great Result

Having taken on fellow promotees Thame Youth last week our trip to Chalfont Saints Sharks gave us our first opportunity to test ourselves against proven Green Division opponents.

Chalfont started the game stronger and forced a number of corners however our defensive trio of Igor Chrzanowski, Charlie Davis and Jack Rollins held firm before we finally managed to get the ball out of our half.

Once we had settled the ever reliable Elliott Behan and Kaelin Shaw began to exert their authority in the middle of the park which enabled us to make our mark on the game with goals from Andrew Carr (2) and Joshua Harrison giving us a three goal lead.

Kaelin showed his flexibility by dropping back into defence for the latter part of the second half as Jacob Oliver came on to give his best performance of the season so far and Ben Philbey also joined the game to give us a stronger presence up front.

Chalfont ramped things up again as the half drew to a conclusion and scored themselves a consolation goal to make it 3-1 at the break.

Half time saw us make a few changes and we looked dangerous at the half settled down with Aqib Zahir joining Igor and Charlie in defence and Joshua Cotton coming on on the right side of midfield.

We extended our lead to 4-1 when Joshua Harrison raced onto Joshua Cotton's well timed through ball to hammer home with his usual sense of authority and confidence.

At this point Chalfont put their foot down again and scored themselves two goals and, to be frank, at this point they looked the team most likely to win the game. To counter this we introduced Harry Grantham to the game who after a frustrating spell on the sidelines with injury performed excellently in both causing Chalfont problems and stopping them causing us problems.

Our slender one goal lead wasn't to last however as James Gibson's persistence down the right hand side paid off as he was able to play in Andrew Carr who scored to round off a superb hat trick of goals and secure another three points in our quest towards Green Division consolidation. Andrew picked up a slight knock as the game neared its conclusion which enabled Ben Philbey to rejoin the game in his more familiar defensive position which, in turn, enabled Aqib to move up the field and provide us with some solid defensive midfield cover whilst Harry took care of matters on the left. There was even time for Oliver Foster to make one of his now traditional end of game super saves to ensure the final scoreline wasn't as close as it could have been.

All in all despite nearly letting the opposition back in the game it was another pleasing morning and another fantastic team performance. It is particularly pleasing to see everyone not looking out of place in the higher division.

Next up is Haddenham Youth Red at home on Sunday.