Division 1

Middleton Cheney  2    Eynsham  2

Saturday, 25 January 2014

MC:  Jamie Jollands, Steve Twynham

Eynsham: Tom McCluden,  Liam Boterby

Honours finished even in this hard fought game which finished with two goals in the last 5 minutes after the players had been taken off the field following a torrential hailstorm.

Eynsham started the game stronger as Cheney struggled to settlle, but the visitors didn’t really create any clear cut chances. They took the lead on the half hour after a calamitous goalkeeping error when Henry Spears miskicked a backpass and allowed the Eynsham player to nick the ball off him and score in to an empty net. Eynsham held on to the lead until half time but the home side came out looking stronger in the second half and grabbed a deserved equalizer through Steve Twynham early on to set up an interesting second half.

However as the weather deteriorated throughout the half both teams were unable to play good football, although Cheney did have what looked like a perfectly good goal disallowed for a push on the keeper midway through the half. With 15 minutes to go a torrential downpour sent the spectators running for the cover of the changing rooms. The players stuck it out until the rain turned to hail and the referee took the players off for 5 minutes, but all agreed that the match should be finished and they went back out to conclude the game.  Within the 5 minutes that remained both teams managed to score on the ridiculously wet pitch. Eynsham netted from a free kick that slid inside Spears’s post with him at full stretch and then virtually from the kick off, Jamie Jollands was put through on his own and slotted a left foot shot low in to the net at the other end to bring the score back to 2-2.