21 January 2022
The 1st XI travelled away to Wellington for their second Saturday fixture of the term. Both teams were coming off a narrow cup loss so were eager to get a win. Abingdon started the stronger of the two with good link up play between the midfielders and forwards creating a few shooting opportunities. Eventually the pressure grew and Abingdon won a short corner which was flicked well by Caspar Mannix beating the goalkeeper. Wellington took this as a wake up call and quickly found a breakaway to make the score 1-1.
The game became open and Abingdon found another breakthrough through Matthew Fowler before an own goal, making the game tied at half time. In the second half, Abingdon stepped up the work rate and found themselves pressing Wellington hard and winning the ball further up the pitch, another Caspar Mannix flick and a Matthew Fowler tap in saw the score 4-2 in favour of Abingdon. They managed to hold on under a lot of pressure to win 4-3 overall.
The 2nd XI, after a tough game vs Bradfield, has a much improved performance overall. Wellington eventually broke the deadlock late into the second half and continued to look quite comfortable until the final 15 minutes of the game when Abingdon really applied some pressure in the attacking areas, showing aggression, spirit and determination. We were unlucky to concede another goal in the closing stages on the counter attack but all players played well and as a team we’re starting to develop into a much better unit. Man of the match goes to Ollie Sutton for his driving runs, break-up play and endless running.
The U15s had an excellent 6-1 win. It was a strong team performance with some excellent team goals and excellent link play through every team member. The U14s lost but there are plenty of positives to take from the performance. We look forward to another full weekend of hockey vs MCS.
