Due to both first teams progressing in the FA Vase, this fixture was moved from Saturday 15th to Tuesday 18th under the flights at Radcot Road. Last season both games were toughly fought with Clanfield winning 2-0 at Barrington Park and drawing 1-1 at Radcot Road with Shrivenham feeling they should have picked up 3 points in the second game.

Both sides were in good form having won their previous games with Shrivenham looking particularly strong with three first teamers included in the starting 11. Clanfield welcomed back captain Harvey Savin, Redd Pratley, Ben Thomas, Dan Townsend, Liam Readhead and Joe Hefferan whilst Jack Payne played his first game of the season looking to get minutes under his belt following his three game suspension. Callum Davies, Callum Miller and Chris Cowley were unavailable whilst Jack Smith and Holbie Clayton were missing because of injury. Elliot Want and Will Thomas were rested with an important Youth Team game coming up on Thursday.

The game started quickly, end to end football with the first chance falling to Redd Pratley firing over. Five minutes later Jordy Thomas found himself one on one with Shrivenham’s keeper who was brought down and given a penalty. Jordy stepped up only to force a great save by Alexander.

The game was played at a fast tempo with both teams not quite being able to unlock the deadlock. In the 41st minute, Dan Townsend hit a diagonal ball in behind Shrivenham’s wing back for Jack Payne to latch on to before comfortably slotting away. 1-0 Clanfield.

Moments later, a freekick from 25 yards was delicately chipped behind Shrivenham’s high line for Sam Orton to beat the keeper only to agonisingly hit the post. 1-0 Half time.

As expected, Shrivenham reacted and started the second half on top. An effort from Rudman and a Luke Haley save from De Souza kept it at 1-0. However, in the 55th minute, Shrivenham capitalised on their early pressure with Rob Hendry scoring from a corner.

This resulted in a needed reaction from Clanfield who 15 minutes later finished the game off with 2 goals in 1 minute. The first coming from Jordy Thomas who, as Shrivenham Tweeted “turns the Shrivvy defence inside out” before sliding the ball past Alexander. A minute later, Ben Thomas beat his man down the left wing to square the ball for Redd Pratley to finish first time.

In the final twenty minutes, Clanfield saw the game out. Jaden Mole broke through on goal and was unlucky not to win a freekick. In the last action of the game Shrivenham hit the post and then the cross bar seconds before the final whistle.

A really good advertisement for Division 2 football especially with it being played by two Development Teams. A mention deserves to go out to Alex Criddle who refereed the game excellently.

All the best to Shrivenham for the rest of the season.