Saturday 8th September 2012
United Counties League Division 1
Wigston Road, Oadby, Leicestershire
Another glorious sunny day with temperatures hitting twenty-five degrees Celsius, or seventy seven Fahrenheit in old money. I made my way to Oadby Town FC for a league match against Bedfordshire side Wootton Blue Cross. For anyone unaware where Wootton is, it is a few miles south west of Bedford.
Oadby went into this game as firm favourites to take the three points, sitting in third place in the UCL Division 1 table recording two wins out of two. They have also reached the final of the Battle of Britain Charity Cup, a competition that they have won three times in the past. Wootton meanwhile have only picked up one point from their three league outings - a draw against AFC Rushden & Diamonds.
The first twenty minutes or so saw both sides struggle to find any rhythm with Oadby seemingly having "heavy legs". Things were not helped as Ollie Brownhill replaced the injured Jon Stevenson, and they got even worse for the home side on twenty three minutes as Grant Williams drilled a shot passed Warren Butlin to give the visitors the lead. This probably gave Oadby the kick up the back side they needed, but on thirty four minutes they had another enforced substitution, this time Joss Cobb picking up an injury and was replaced by Mason Hurst. The final ten minutes of the half saw Oadby put a lot of pressure on the Wootton defence, but they held out and went in at half time one up.
The second half saw football's equivalent of the Alamo as Oadby lay siege on the Wootton goal. They created plenty of chances and played some cracking football to boot. Just after the hour mark the Oadby management team made their third and final substitution of the afternoon as Elliott Wright replaced Jim Dodds. A couple of minutes later and Oadby's pressure finally told with Che Adam equalising. Excellent work from Michael Reeve saw him lay the ball back to Adam, whose 1st time shot went past the flat footed Chris Woodward.Just five minutes later and the home side took the lead. Following a free kick there was a goal mouth scramble that saw Sam Benjamin prod the ball home from a few yards out. The goals came coming and it was Michael Reeve who got in on the act - his shot on the turn found the back of the net via the post. The fourth and final goal of the afternoon for Oadby came just twelve minutes after their first and they saved the best till last. Jake Duffy who was always a danger on the right side of midfield, chipped Woodward from ten yards out. The margin of victory should have been greater as Mason Hurst was brought down for a penalty, only for Duffy to have his spot kick saved by Woodward.
Oadby played well for an hour in this game and deservedly kept their 100% record in tact at this early stage of the 2012/13 season. If they can play like this for ninety minutes then very few (if any) teams in this division would be able to live with them.
Some photos can be viewed in the slideshow below:
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