Fixture

Sevenoaks travelled to Surrey on Saturday to face Old Georgians, a side who had beaten them 2-1 on the second weekend of the season.  Intent to exact some revenge, Oaks started the game brightly.  Pressing intelligently, the front three of Richard Payne, Tim Warrington and Rob Hemingway forced the Georgians defence into early errors, most notably when the full back attempted a cross field ball, only to pick out Warrington on the top of the D, unfortunately the Sevenoaks captain’s touch let him down at the crucial moment and the chance evaporated.   However, shortly after Sevenoaks would capitalise on their dominance; Nick Miller fed the ball into Warrington, who cleverly duped his marker with a disguised pass to Joel Thomas, who ghosted into the D to win a penalty corner for Oaks.  Grant Sykes was given the nod from the top of the D and continued his good run of scoring form by slamming the ball hard and low past the Georgians keeper to give Oaks the lead.  The lead should have been doubled moments later, when once again the full back coughed up possession on the edge of the home side’s D, this time Hemingway, eliminated the last defender before laying the ball on a plate for Payne to tap the ball home, however, Payne was shoved from behind by the last defender preventing him from finishing off the pass.  All eyes turned on the umpire, but much to Oaks’ surprise a penalty stroke was not awarded.

Having been let off the hook, Old Georgians slowly began to find their feet and began to dominate possession.  Eventually this paid off as they were awarded a penalty corner after a Sevenoaks foot in the D.  James Marshall in the Sevenoaks goal got a glove to the flick but was unable to keep it out and the sides were level at 1-1.  Just before half-time Georgians had another penalty corner; this time Marshall was able to tip it round the post to ensure the score remained even at the interval.

After the interval Georgians continued to frustrate Sevenoaks by keeping possession well and preventing Oaks from any meaningful attacks of their own.  Despite their control of the game, chances were few and far between for Georgians and when they did come Marshall was equal to them in the Oaks goal.  It would take a moment of real bad luck to allow Georgians to break-through, a through-ball was well cut out by Chris Price, but the Oaks full back lost his footing on the wet pitch allowing the Georgians forward a clear run on goal, and he kept his composure to slot the ball past Marshall into the back of the net.  At 2-1 down Oaks had to come out and force the game more, which inevitably led to gaps at the back.  The home side did well to exploit these and soon extended their lead going 3-1 up.  Old Georgians defended well and Oaks did not manage to test the goal-keeper in the remaining minutes, and as Sevenoaks tired, Georgians snatched another goal to put the game to bed.

A poor away day for Sevenoaks, who must bounce back next week against Oxford University.