Written By : Tony Stone on 06/02/2023

Categories: Match Report

The slightly milder weather brought out a crowd of 69, who witnessed a smooth, controlled performance from Henley, who eased their way to a 1-6 away win.

Henley pushed forward from the start, piling pressure on the Newton goal, forcing a couple of desperate blocks and clearances early on. The opener came after 10 minutes, Shore racing down the left and outmuscling his marker, before drilling in a low cross, which was turned into his own net by an unfortunate Newton defender for 0-1, with Field in close attendance. Henley’s 2nd came after 15 minutes, a fantastic ball in from Ablitt, bisecting the defence, Field controlled with his chest and neatly finished from six yards for 0-2. Only 3 minutes later Henley extended their lead, Bruce timing his run to perfection to get on the end of Van Oene’s through ball, slotting home for 0-3.

Henley kept turning the screw, but couldn’t find a finish, this led to Newton having their best spell of the game. Buoyed by a goal, albeit coming against the run of play, when Stagg took advantage of a mix up at the back to bring the score to 1-3 with a tidy finish, after 40 minutes. This encouraged Newton, who played some good stuff in the period leading up to the break, but at HT the score remained 1-3.

The second half continued in a similar vein, Henley attacking, but Newton looking handy on the break. However on 58 minutes the visitors extinguished any faint hopes of a Newton come back, Ablitt’s shot well blocked by keeper Davies but rebounding cruelly back into the goal off a Newton defender for 1-4. Newton kept their heads up though, a good through ball seeing the foot of the post hit after 62 minutes.

With the points in the bag the visitors had the luxury of being able to make some changes, Watling, White and the returning Bradlaugh coming off the bench and getting a run out. Henley made it 1-5 after 64 minutes with the rarest of the rare, a back post header from Bruce, yes a header! (his 3rd headed goal out of a total of 226 during his time at Henley) Field wrapped up the scoring after 82 minutes, a quick break saw White and Tejano combine to release Bruce, his perfect cross tucked away by Field to bring the score to 1-6. Only some heroic goalkeeping by Davies, making a terrific double stop to deny Watling and another to deny Van Oene prevented Henley from increasing their lead, leaving the final score at 1-6.

A relaxed and comfortable team performance from Henley, Tejano’s all action showing earning him the Ultra’s MOTM vote, narrowly ahead of Shore and Ablitt. But, in reality, the whole squad were terrific today, not giving Newton a chance to get going at all.

As for our hosts, they are clearly building and being coached to play football in the right manner, they’ve a supply of talented youngsters there and a strong management team, if they keep progressing, they’ll be a force in the coming seasons. They didn’t let their heads drop and were looking to play the ball until the final whistle, we wish them luck for the remainder of the season.