In theory Aston travelled over the hills to Ducklington, in reality most came up the Duck bypass. In Astons ranks their were at least eight former Ducklington players who filtered into the unusual surrounds of the away changing room of the Ducklington social club. The boys pitch used by Ducklington for the previous season had gone in favour of the uneven large pitch in the middle of the field.
With the reserve game cancelled Aston were backed by plenty of away vocal support who had clearly come to make it an uncomfortable afternoon for the home team.
Ash returned to the starting XI just despite the previous weeks brilliance of "the cat", crazy Dave Rabbich came in at right back fresh from Ice Hockey trials for the Swindon Wildcats. Hedges and Luke Woodley paired up at centre half, The man with the perm Sam kept his place at left back. The Fleming's and "Beeros" in the middle with smudge, fish and the likeable Vince up front.
Duck kicked off and within 30 seconds Vince had pressed the ball and won it straight back and it looked like it should be a straight forward afternoon for the away team. The first 10 minutes was all Aston who had a lot of ball in the Duck half and created several good chances with all 3 of the forwards missing when they should have done better.
The 'Derby' threatened to boil over when Spit took a dislike to the Duck captain and both players ended up being booked for there little set too .... text book Fleming moment that happens once a game at least. Then from a rare moment of the ball being in the Aston half a fantastic first time strike from Perry Tinson from outside the box was hit into the corner of the goal leaving Ash floundering and unable to get anywhere near it!
Aston briefly then fell apart looking for answers to how they had managed to fall behind. Then a chance fell to Hedges who found himself one on one with the keeper his eyes lit up and he put the ball over the keeper and everyone waited for the net to burst oh wait hang on the ball was not nestled in the net in fact it nestled near the corner flag!
The Duck team were really a shadow of former Duck teams that have graced the Witney and District and surely they couldn't have believed there luck to be 1-0 up at half time. Aston were in shock at half time and Ash had some very stern words to say to the team and they were sent out with there tails between there legs.
Aston started the second half well and continued to dominate and press and create countless chances that came and went. Then the break through came as Vince cut across the edge of the box and smash the ball home with his left foot without even thinking about it, the relief was clear to see.
Chances kept coming with Smudger being guilt of cutting inside and blazing over numerous times. Duck were creating nothing and it was only a matter of time before Aston took the lead. It came from a fantastic ball over the top from Crazy which Ross took control of and put a perfect ball across for drifter to tap in at the far place. Whenever drifter plays up top he score and makes his dad proud. He had only been on the pitch around ten minutes.
Clarkey then came on for a cameo up top and in the last 10 min of the game he had 3 great chances to score. Turns out it is as hard for defenders to score as it is for them to keep a clean sheet! A very one sided 2-1 victory which left Aston breathing a huge sigh of relief but a win is a win and Aston march on up the league.
Written by the Aston Squirrel
# | Team | Pl | Pts |
1. | FC Hollybush | 16 | 44 |
2. | Carterton Rangers | 16 | 35 |
3. | Aston | 16 | 29 |
4. | Bampton Utd | 16 | 23 |
5. | FC Nomads | 16 | 19 |
6. | Chadlington | 16 | 18 |
7. | Stonesfield | 16 | 18 |