1 February 2018
Week three of the football season started with the Abingdon 1st XI welcoming MCS to Tilsley Park. Playing under lights, the Abingdon side controlled the game from start to finish, with goals from Mathéo Charrier-Chardin, Charlie Goulder and Oise Emafo giving the Abingdon side a convincing 3-0 win.
This was swiftly followed by the U15 As getting their County Cup campaign underway, again with a convincing 5-1 win against Burford. James Daly netting 4 of the goals.
Saturday saw the Football Club’s annual block fixture again the strong football outfit, Hampton School. The Lower School sides got the day underway with the U12s showing real promise in trying to play the Abingdon way, and despite 0-2 and 4-7 defeats for the As and Bs respectively, both sets of coaches were highly encouraged by the team’s progress. Two goals from Felix Kind, and another from Sam Dominic helped the U13 As come from 0-1 behind to secure a 3-2 win, whilst the Bs also won 2-0.
Having gone 1-0 up early on through a Jeffrey Lau goal, the U14 As fought hard to earn a well-earned 1-1 draw, whilst the U14 Bs will feel on another day they could have left with more, 1-2 the final score. The U14 Cs again performed well against Hampton D XI securing another convincing win.
Over at Hampton School the U15 As were looking to kick on from their mid-week victory, and despite another good display suffered a 0-2 defeat, whilst the U15 Cs battled out a 1-1 draw. The U16 Bs came up against a very strong Hampton side and unfortunately came off second best. Having lost 0-5 to the same Hampton side the previous year, the U16 As travelled to Hampton looking to right the wrongs of last year’s fixture and didn’t disappoint. With Will Lebeau having scored early on and the game in the balance at 1-1 a stunning finish from Joshua Ponting with only minutes on the clock gave the Abingdon side a terrific away victory.
Back at the main school, Abingdon 4th XI continued their good run of form with a convincing 8-4 win against Hampton 5th XI, Ben Ling scoring four, and Daniel Bacon two, whilst the 3rd XI beat Hampton 4th XI 3-1, Adewale Adebutu with a double and Adrian Ho with the third. The 2nd XI came up against a very good Hampton side and dug deep to earn a hard fought 2-2 draw on Waste Court. A terrific result for this ever improving group of players.
At Tilsley Park a re-jigged 1st XI (due to illness and injury) found themselves 1-0 up, and despite Hampton 1st XI having all the possession the Abingdon side stayed compact and dug deep to keep the opposition at bay. Two late Hampton goals at the end of normal time looked to have killed the Abingdon side's spirits having worked tirelessly to get something out the game. Then up stepped Oise Emafo in the last minute of injury time to slide the ball home from close range and earn a thoroughly deserved 2-2 draw for the Abingdon side.
To summarise a very promising set of results against tough opposition, and the Football Club now looks forward to fixtures against Reading Grammar School and Shiplake College next weekend.
Thank you for your continued support on the touchline.
