Match report: Abingdon United 6 – Quarry Rovers 1

Abingdon United 6 - Quarry Rovers 1

Sunday 13th November

This was (so far) the bitterest pill we have had to swallow. Not only were Abingdon at the bottom of the table with us, they had conceded 14 goals in their previous two games without reply, and were one of the teams promoted to the A league with us, there was the glimmer of hope that Quarry would break their losing streak.

Maybe the early start wasn’t to our boys’ liking, for within the first minute the Abingdon left wing charged through and unleashed a beautiful shot from outside the area to open the scoring. Five minutes later an almost carbon copy from the other wing as a hopeful hoof found a pacey winger who made it 2-0. Both were the familiar through balls which seem to have caused us so many problems this season.

All of a sudden, Quarry seemed to wake up and start putting moves together. Azlan and Xander were paired up front, with Azlan providing the height, muscle and intimidation while Xander was all pace and deft touches. Our “Pocket Rockets” of Sultan and Lewis up the left were also playing really well, while Jacob provided the linkage behind the front two and Ben was all fight in the centre of midfield. Sultan followed up a loose ball but put it wide; Xander’s beautiful run up the right channel ended with the ball in the side netting; there was a triple save from Azlan; Xander shot wide again; and there were even more goal line clearances with the goalie beaten. Quarry even got the ball in the back of the net but it was ruled offside. At times you wondered how on earth Abingdon got away without conceding a goal, but somehow they did. To rub salt in to the wound of not scoring, Abingdon played the old “through ball” trick and the lone striker outpaced everyone to make it 3-0.

It had to come, and finally Xander slotted the ball home to bring a goal back. Shortly after came the most amazing sequence of shots on the Abingdon goal, featuring a rebound off the bar and two goal line clearances by defenders, with the ball eventually ending up in the arms of the grateful keeper. It looked as though, having leaked 12 goals against Headington Youth, Abingdon’s defenders had been coached in the art of covering the goal, and I have to say it worked as they saved several certain goals.

Come half time and Quarry were somehow 3-1 down having dominated play, brilliantly at times, and had so many more chances but only converted one of them.

As well as Quarry played in the first half, they could not repeat it in the second. They huffed and puffed and had their fair share of possession but lacked threat up front and there were no meaningful shots on the Abingdon goal at all. Abingdon scored another three second half goals on the break, making creating and converting chances look simple.

Honestly, Abingdon were nothing special and were ripe for the plucking, but Quarry failed to pluck them.