Craftmatic Chiltern Engineering Services

29th Apr 2006: Hungerford Tournament

The lads played in the Hungerford six a side tournament on Saturday 29th April and were grouped with Eldene Rangers A, Derry Hill, Old Town United A and Lambourn A.

The lads first match was against Eldene who had drawn 0-0 with Derry. In the second minute Eldene broke away and gave Ben no chance as the ball was slotted away inside his near post. Fortunately a minute later Charlie headed in a corner making the half time score 1-1. The second half saw constant Wickham pressure. Karl hit the post followed by William doing the same a few minutes later. When Josh hit the post with 2 minutes left and then the ref got in the way of a Jordan pile driver it seemed inevitable that Wickham would end up with a draw.

The second match against Lambourn almost saw Karl score in the opening seconds. More pressure saw a corner go straight out but from the resulting goal kick William knocked the ball forward to Charlie who banged it in for 1-0. With 3 minutes gone a long Jordan throw in was flicked on by Karl for Josh to score at the back post. Despite lots of pressure in the second half with Aiden leading the line the score remained 2-0.

Old Town were next and quickly went one up as a long throw in was not fully cleared and a long range shot just went in under the bar. Wickham were struggling to pick up their game which continued in the second half. However a long clearance from Jack was flicked on by Charlie in to Josh's path and he duly equalised. Straight from the kick off with only 1 minute left the ball was pumped in wide to Wickham's left. Both Jack and Jordan left it for each other and the ball was lobbed over Ben resulting in a 2-1 defeat.

The last game against Derry would determine who went through as runners up but Derry only needed a draw. Nothing was created in the first half but the then second saw lots of chances but Derry always seemed to scramble the ball away. With 90 seconds left Karl went down the right crossed the ball into Charlie whose shot hit the keeper came back and hit Charlie to loop into the net. Aiden immediately replace Charlie to tighten up the defence and somehow Wickham were through to the quarter final.

The quarter final was against Liden who had dominated their group. Wickham played with 2 defenders and no attacker and played as a solid unit. Wickham had a couple of chances near the end of the half with Josh hitting the post with the last kick of the half. Wickham dominated the second half as three goal mouth scrambles were somehow all cleared by Liden. This remained the pattern of play during the extra time of 2 minutes each way golden goal. In the first minute a goal kick came to William, he fired it back on only for it to hit the underside of the bar and come out. Despite dominating extra time, penalties were needed. Josh tucked the first one away and Ben then saved Liden's first. William scored the second as did Liden which left Karl to smash home his for a 3-1 penalty win.

Thatcham Tornadoes were the semi final opponents. Wickham dominated the first half and were now playing some good football however they could not score. After two minutes of the second half Charlie raced clear and was strong enough to hold off two players to score. Jack immediately replaced him as Wickham played two at the back. Josh had a chance to seal the game right at the end but was forced off the ball just before he could shoot but a 1-0 win was good enough to get through to the final. Devizes A beat their B side with a golden goal and were thus Wickham's opponents in the final.

Wickham, kicking down the slope, controlled most of the half which saw them open the scoring in the 5th minute. Josh cut in from the left but was forced across the edge of the area, so hit a shot with his right foot. The ball came back out to Karl who drilled it into the roof of the net. Eight minutes were played in the first half with Wickham hanging on a little towards the end. In the 1st minute of the second half Karl brought a great save from the keeper, then in the next attack Josh hit the post which was followed by William having a shot charged down on the edge of the box. Wickham just could not get the goal to kill the game off until with 30 seconds left Karl chased in a long shot and picked up the fumble from the keeper. He was forced out wide on the right but got his cross in for Jordan to slam home for a 2-0 win.

Ben Grey, Aiden Weeks, Jack Bolton, Karl Admans, William Herrington, Josh Way, Charlie De Fraine, Jordan Burnett.