OC 3rd XI v Oundle (h)

Result 3-1

A big congratulations to everyone for Saturday's result. It was a scrappy game and we certainly weren't at our best. Hampered by a smaller than normal pitch and the fact that we had 8 centre backs playing, we didn't always play the free-flowing football we're famous for. But this is what great teams do - win ugly. And that's exactly what we did. They had some tricky players but we dealt with them very professionally. I thought Wilko and Ben Ryder-Smith were exemplary at the back, adapting straight away to the fact that they were very rarely going to win the first ball, they were in place to win pretty much every second ball. Thoughtful & classy defending. Dude did everything asked of him in the sticks, punching when he needed to and catching a slippery ball when under pressure from their giant up front. Dan Bowman and Dolly worked their socks off all afternoon and won us a lot of ball in midfield and Humph and Steve, George and Mosser were both resolute in defense and solid going forward all day. But it was the Jackson brothers up front who epitomized the performance on Saturday. They chased everything down, challenged for every header, came back to win the ball and both scored to take the game well and truly away from Oundle. John Jackson's first was bizarrely a header? I guess there's a first time for everything and his second came through the tenacity and determination he showed all afternoon. Mark Jackson's third was another sign of dogged hard work up front as their defense panicked every time they were in possession. By half time, the game was won and the second half was inevitable scrappy. Our concentration weaned as the 1's and 2's started their matches on next door pitches and as the second half grew older, we forgot to play football. We must learn to concentrate right up to the final whistle and keep the ball when ahead in matches. That said, 3 points is all I can ask for and exactly what we deserved. That now puts us top of the league, 1 point ahead of Bradfield and 3 points ahead of the 2's. This is a marvelous achievement but only the beginning. We must keep working on our fitness and ball retention and above all, keep the faith. We are the best team in this league and we will win the title but we must treat every game as if it were our last. Keep it up lads and well done to J Jackson, who is this week's Man of the Match.