Aylesbury United 0 Ware 0

They say it is better to travel than to arrive. Well, possibly. The trip to Chesham, for which the TfL journey planner failed to rise to the occasion presented by engineering work on the Metropolitan and Jubilee lines, had its moments of frustration and mad dashes between trains, but not much of what you would call excitement.

Something similar could be said of the match. The first five minutes saw the ball barely escape from the Aylesbury half and two good chances just failed to produce a goal. In particular, Joe Dearman’s cross from the right after Theo Ofori’s reverse pass opened up the defence, crossed the home six yard area begging to be tapped in but no-one was close enough to get a touch. Ware had seemingly laid out their plan for the game.

Yet after that Aylesbury slowly pulled themselves into contention and by the end of the half Fred Burbidge had had significantly more to do than James Callan, his opposite number in the Aylesbury goal. The plan was no longer evident and excitement had been replaced by frustration.

The first warning came almost fifteen minutes in when Burbidge just managed to tip a cross cum shot away for a corner. He was in action again ten minutes later when the ball was lost from a throw in and Kennedy Feyi was bearing down on goal. He rode one tackle with some neat footwork but, under pressure from Burbidge, stroked his shot wide.

A minute later David Pearce blasted a good opportunity over the bar and there was more trouble for Ware on the half hour. As United warmed to their task the ball was scrambled away from goal before Feyi somehow failed to put it in the net from almost on the goal line.

The second half found Ware having more of the game with the midfield working hard to steady things but the cautious approach of playing the ball across the back whilst looking for an opportunity continued to tempt fate when a misplaced pass gave the ball away.

Meanwhile Ofori was not getting much change out of Jake Bewley in the Aylesbury defence. Normally when this happens the two wide men are swapped in an effort liven things up but not in this game. Eventually a change of sorts came when Dearman was replaced by Kieran Bishop but the striker was played wide on the right with Ofori now on the left.

The introduction of Richard Ennin improved things but Ware’s play was still disjointed. As a result, whilst Ware were now having more of the game Callan was still given little to do beyond clutching corners and crosses out of the air. The final five minutes did see Ware impress themselves on the game again, the best chance being Jon Clements' cross through the six yard area that failed to be converted.

A decent crowd, encouraged by Aylesbury’s community day, would presumably liked to have seen some goals but other than that it was a good day for United as they seek to foster links with their home town, links that could eventually go some way to seeing them in a home ground back in Aylesbury.

For Ware a point keeps them in the play-offs and they now look capable of staying there although other results have seen them drop to third in the table. It is now becoming a case of where in the play-offs they might be able to finish. Crucial to that is next week’s home game with AFC Dunstable where a win will come close to guaranteeing a home draw in the semi-final.

On a more profound note, the return of Louis Rose for a full ninety minutes of football after six months of successful cancer treatment put travel worries and points won or lost into a proper perspective. It also made him everyone's choice as man of the match.

Ware: Fred Burbidge, Stef Georgiou, Ben Siggers, Alex Warman, Louis Rose, Ekow Coker, Theo Ofori, Freddy Moncur (Richard Ennin 73mins), Jon Clements, Jack Dreyer, Joe Dearman (Kieran Bishop 64mins). Unused subs: George Ironton, David Sota, Gabriel Chapps.