The Oaks are in the middle of a very rich vein of form at the moment: that's now four straight wins and 35 goals scored in the last six games. Despite the fact that we have been winning games all season, the sloppiness in front of goal that kept the scorelines looking respectable early in the season has now been replaced by a ruthlessness that is seeing us annihilate teams week in week out - as this graph showing goals scored in each of the 15 league games clearly shows.
2.5 goals per game in the first 10 games has increased to 6.2 per game in the last 5.
The situation in the league now looks even rosier for the Oaks, with only 4 points now required from the last 5 games to put us mathematically beyond the reach of Thameside and Wilburn, who are now the only teams whose end of season points tally could exceed the 37 the Oaks currently possess. Thameside won today, and recent form would suggest that three wins from three in their remaining fixtures against Beauchamps and Tilbury (twice) isn't out of the question. This would give them 38 points, but one more point should be enough to take them out of the equation given our vastly superior goal difference.
Wilburn still have five games to play (including two against the Oaks), and could reach 41 points. However, even if they do achieve the unlikely feat of beating the Oaks twice this still leaves us with games against Stanford, Belhus and Jurgens to pick up the four points we need to clinch the title (note that I'm assuming a 35 goal swing in goal difference is out of the question).
The side that Milesy selected to start this game looked like this:
ppppppppppppppppTy
Deano (c)ppppppRobppppNikippppEye-Ball
NathanppppppBunnypppppTapsellppppppRyan
ppppppppppppNickppppSharpy
subs: Harry, Luke, Al
The recent dry weather had turned an already uneven and patchy Palmer's pitch into a rock solid death trap, and whilst not ideal for playing football on at any time with the cup final only four days away I for one had my fingers crossed that no one picked up a serious injury.
I have already mentioned that we played for 80 minutes with ten men, and it is from 10 minutes into the game that I will start this report. I have also already mentioned that Wilburn Wanderers are really the only team that we still need to watch in the league; and they are also our opponents for this Wednesday's cup final. Their game was postponed today, and as we are yet to meet in the league this year, a few of their players and manager came over to see what we were all about. I suspect that they now wish they had stayed in bed to claw back the lost hour's sleep, as if the Oaks recent form and position in the league isn't intimidating enough the performance of the Oaks midfielders and strikers will surely see them losing more sleep over the next couple of days. The back five also deserve credit for keeping their fifth league clean sheet, but to be honest the lack of threat posed by the opposition made this an easy day at the office, and we had the luxury of sitting back and admiring the fantastic performance of the men in front of us (oh, and we already know what Deano was doing).
Tapsell quickly recognised that the Oaks would need him to suppress his attacking urges and took to the role of holding midfielder superbly. Along with Bunny, who seemed to be everywhere, the two central midfielders were winning everything in the air and on the deck and completely controlling the game. Nathan was a constant threat on the right and Nick was battling away up top. However, for me the star of the first half was Ryan. His constant running, and ability to spot where we most needed the extra cover meant that he more than made up for the numerical disadvantage. He also made himself available whenever the Oaks had the ball and was a constant threat as time and again he embarrassed his inferior opponents down the left.
It didn't take long for the opening goal for the Oaks to arrive. A free kick was won near the half way line, and before taking the kick Nathan encourage Deano to get in the box. He duly obliged, and was rewarded by having the ball planted directly onto his swede, with which he then directed the ball past the stranded keeper and into the net: 0-1.
Ryan's hard work in the first half was reward with his first, and the Oaks second goal of the game. Nick collected the ball outside the box with his back to goal and fended of the challenging defender to give himself time to turn and play the ball out to Ryan on the left. Ryan then advanced into the box and hit the ball firmly into the bottom corner: 0-2.
The Oaks continued to dominate, with Nick looking certain to make it three nil when the ball broke to him in the box with half the goal empty. However, a last minute push in the back meant his off balanced shot came of more shin than foot and rebounded out off the post. Tapsell hit the follow up firmly and maybe should have won a penalty as the defender seemed to stop the ball with his arm. Still, a two nil lead at half time was a fantastic return and just reward to the pride and team spirit displayed by the away side.
It should be mentioned that this was a weaker Socketts Heath side than the one beaten 3-1 two weeks ago, and in particular they were missing a proper goal keeper. They also only had eleven men and one of them got injured in the first half and was now pretty much a spectator in a forward role. Still, the fact that Heath may as well have not been on the pitch in the second half given the Oaks total dominance can mainly be attributed to the fact that we completely broke them in the first half. Now with Harry on to run them ragged the Oaks Show was in full swing.
The third goal was claimed by Nathan as he cut in from the right to collect a through ball from H before finishing in style across the keeper into the far corner of the net, to confirm that he has found his goal scoring touch just at the right time: 0-3.
The move for the next goal started with a throw-in in the left corner when Ryan and Eye-Ball took advantage of Heath's lack of interest in defending. A short throw from Ryan was returned to him by Eye-Ball. His ball into the box was then collect by Tapsell who played it back to H, and his first time shot into the bottom corner was much too good for the stand in keeper and resulted in a rare goal from outside the box for young H: 0-4.
The Oaks were rampant by now, and any thoughts of playing the holding role had been well and truly forgotten by Tapsell and the rest of the midfield. However, it wasn't as if this role was required as Heath had completely given up and we had virtually all of the ball and as much time as we wanted to make the possession count. The fifth goal quickly followed when a well struck shot from Tapsell was fumbled by the keeper, and Ryan was on hand to slot home from 8 yards: 0-5.
Milesy now took the opportunity to bring on the two remaining substitutes with Luke and Al replacing Eye-Ball and Nathan. There was still time for plenty of action including a trademark mazy run from Luke, a rarer box to box charge from Deano (complete with commentary) and a few long range efforts from Ryan which unfortunately didn't deliver the Hat-trick his performance deserved.
The sixth and final nail in the Oaks coffin was hammered home by Bunny as, in quite comical fashion, he smashed two close range efforts against keeper and defender before they finally submitted and Bunny emerging victorious on the third attempt: 0-6.
We really couldn't ask for a better performance in preparation for the cup final on Wednesday, and everyone routing for the Oaks can be sure that we will be giving 100%, which will hopefully be enough to add the first half of a league and cup double that this exceptional squad of young (in most cases) men deserve.
Eye-Ball
Next game: Division 2 Cup final @ Tilbury FC v Wilburn Wanderers: Wed 28th March - 1930 KO.
We even got a mention on the league website:
Goals and assists chart
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