Henley Athl vs Old Newton

A crowd of 97 saw Henley produce some stylish football to record a 5-2 victory, over a much-improved Old Newton, revitalised by their new management team.

Henley started smartly, George Ablitt forcing a save from Ruth-Pateman in the opening minute. The Henley pressure continued and was rewarded after 12 minutes, a one-two between Gavin Van-Oene and Tejano saw Van Oene smash home a left foot strike into the bottom corner from 20 yards for 1-0. Within minutes Liam Ablitt came close, rounding the keeper to see his effort cleared off the line, Tejano hitting the post with a header after 20 minutes as Henley poured forward.

On 32 minutes Newton’s determined defence was breached, superb work from Cowan, skipping past 3 defenders to the line before cutting the ball back to George Ablitt to fire home from the edge of the box for 2-0. Henley’s dominance continued and on 40 minutes they scored again, a raking 60 yard pass from Gavin Van Oene precisely picked out Bruce, he cut inside and hit a fierce strike which Ruth- Pateman could only parry into the path of George Ablitt, who swept home, to make it 3-0 at HT.

Gavin Van-Oene tried a cheeky one straight from the restart, spotting the keeper off his line, he launched a strike from inside his own half which only just went over. This was followed shortly after by a thunderous 25 yard volley from Bruce which whistled an inch or two over the bar. Newton were still in the game however and enjoyed a good period of play before George Ablitt completed his hat-trick to seal the win. Liam Ablitt hit a terrific cross field pass to find Bruce, he cut in and played a neat ball to George Ablitt who slid the ball through Ruth-Pateman’s legs for 4-0.

With 15 minutes remaining Newton took advantage of a rare mix-up between Lynch and Storey which enabled Cooke to fire home what initially looked like a consolation goal for 4-1. However this led to a good period of play from Newton, putting Henley under incredible pressure, their efforts further rewarded with another goal, this time an excellent finish on the half-volley from Gathercole on 77 minutes to make it 4-2. However Henley were far from finished and on 88 minutes Bruce hit a cannonball of a shot from 18 yards which rifled in off a combination of post and keeper to bring the final score to 5-2.

Henley played some excellent football throughout, with a handful of exceptional moves, the Ultra’s MOTM went to hat-trick hero George Ablitt, but there were votes aplenty for Gavin Van Oene, who had his best game to date in a Henley shirt, too, plenty of praise for Liam Ablitt also, who gave the Newton defence a torrid time throughout.

Old Newton were much improved from our meeting earlier in the season, even missing a few they gave a good account for themselves and you can see the changes that the new management team are making, they are bound to continue to improve.