Premier Division
Shortwood United 2 Chipping Norton Town 2
Saturday, 21 August 2004
A double strike by Jamie Sampson was not enough to give Chipping Norton Town the three points in an entertaining match at The Meadowbank Stadium Shortwood.
Chippy gave no fewer than 7 players their full debuts including ex-Oxford Utd goalkeeper, Alan Judge. Chippy started brightly and in the first minute a cross from Jamie Clarke was met by Ian Fraser whose shot was acrobatically saved by Ewan Prentice in the Shortwood goal. For the next half an hour, it was a battle between the two midfields with the obvious battle between Mark Johnson of Chippy and Shortwood's Matty Moore. The opening goal of the game came on 40 minutes. Jamie Clarke beat two defenders on the right hand side and his pinpoint cross was met on the half volley by Jamie Sampson who looped the ball over Prentice to give Chippy the lead, but the home side was level on the stroke of half time. A needless free kick was given away by the Chippy defence and Lee Pritchard drove the ball hard and low with the help of a wicked deflection and scored right in the bottom left hand corner, giving Judge no chance.
Half Time: 1-1
After a scrappy opening to the second half, Chippy regained the lead on 62 minutes. Some good build up play by Andrew Helby and Jamie Clarke resulted in Jamie Sampson turning and lobbing Prentice from a full 25 yards for one of the early contenders for goal of the season. With Chippy enjoying some good possession, they could have wrapped the game up on 75 minutes. Sampson's free kick was whipped into the box and Ian Fraser on the volley slammed the ball hard and low but it was brilliantly saved by Prentice. The visitors got their equaliser with just 10 minutes on the clock. Some confusion in the Chippy box gave substitute Alex Rudd a chance shot on the volley to score a well-taken equaliser.
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