Winning Ways Continue

Two matches, two wins and three (limping, creaking) coaches going grey under the pressure.

Match One
Bicester looked strong from the off and Cumnor's decision to let multi-tasking Rory mark the main Bicester danger man saw him play in an unusually wide area. This meant Cumnor were slightly off balance with Ben left to do a lot of the dog work in central midfield. But he still found time to make some lovely linking moves with Fyn, Adam and Will. Speaking of Will, up he popped in the right hand corner to take Ben's smart pass, cut inside and smash a left foot drive inside the near post. 1-0.

Cumnor found their rhythm and started to put some slick passing moves together. Ollie looked assured in goal and Toby was ever watchful at the back. With half-time approaching Cumnor went close to getting a second.

As in recent weeks, Cumnor were asleep at the start of the second half. However, against the run of play, Will skipped past a few tacklers and found Ben. With Fyn free in front of goal, Ben took the shot on and slipped the ball past the goalie. 2-0.

Ben and Will continued to combine nicely and both should have grabbed their seconds and Cumnor's third. Seconds later, their efforts were rewarded as Ben played a lovely through ball to Will who raced through and passed the ball past the advancing goalie. 3-0.

And then, it all went horribly, horribly wrong. Cumnor started dropping off tackles and mis-hitting their passes and soon, Bicester picked up on a defensive error to score. 3-1. Minutes later, they grabbed a second despite the valiant efforts of Ollie in goal.

It was backs to the wall stuff with the coaches chopping and changing with the positions to try and stem the Bicester attacks. Injury saw Toby replaced by Joe who endured the longest 90 seconds ever in the maelstrom of defence. Finally, the ref blew and Cumnor were deservedly (just) 3-2 winners... and back on touch of the league.

In match two, a strong Cumnor team played with intelligence and aggression to secure their second successive win. Joe and James E formed a strong central midfield partnership with Laurie and James S ably supporting out wide, and the big Henry boys solid at the back. But it was Matt - playing up front - who made the breakthrough with a lovely finish after being put in by James S. We weren't finished there, Henry S used his strength to get the ball through to James S who scored our second. 2-0.

Cumnor were looking good and heading into half-time well in control. Then came a Bicester attack and a moment of Muller madness when he forgot he wasn't in goal and caught the ball in the area. In all fairness, it was a good catch. Could Ed stand up tall and save the penalty? Of course he could!

In the second-half, Ed and Matt swapped and Bicester attacked from the off. Karate kid Muller was throwing himself into every tackle and both James boys were showing some nice touches. But like the first match, Cumnor wobbled and pretty soon - despite valiant efforts by Matt - the scores were level. It needed something magical, something sublime to sneak the win... and it came after a clever tackle and run by Laurie, followed by a goalward charge and netbuster by Ed. 3-2.

With time running out and Bicester throwing everything at the Cumnor goal, the boys battled to the very end and managed to secure an excellent win.

Player of the Week: Ben and Rory were highly effective in match one, Will scored his 7th goal in three games, Henry S & M were magnificent in defence, Joe captained with authority and both James S and Matt scored very nice goals. However, POTW goes to Ed... after all, how many players have ever saved a penalty at one end and scored the winner at other?