It was another clean sheet for Stuart Schofield as he colleagues did the business down the other end.
MK Veterans League
Division 3
Upper Heyford vs Cogenhoe
9th April 2023.
On a gloomy but dry morning, Cooks captain Lee Haines won the coin toss and elected to kick ‘downhill’ first half on what was a very small pitch in Heyford, the grass looked like it hadn’t been cut for a very long time also.
Upper Heyford kicked off the game but it was the Cooks who were on the attack first with a chance that was defended with the ball heading towards the corner flag and with a combination of the long grass and the ball stopping after it hit the corner flag, both teams lined up for a corner and Cogenhoe player Stephen Carroll picked the ball up to place it for the kick causing the ref to blow his whistle for handball as he hadn’t seen the ball actually leave the pitch and from where I was standing on the halfway line it didn’t look like it the ball had gone out to me as well. The first part of the game was quite scrappy with most of the attacking coming from the Cooks, Cogenhoe finally won 3 corner-kick’s in a row, 2 were defended by Heyford but the third kick saw Paul Carroll take hitting it long to the far post where Ollie Reynolds was waiting to nod the ball into the net in the 16th minute. 0-1.
It wasn’t long before we had goal number 2 when a lovely through ball to Cooks midfielder Ollie Reynolds who skipped around one player and with the Heyford keeper trying to narrow the angle, Reynolds managed to squeeze the ball between the outstretched hand of the keeper and his goalpost to get his second of the game.
As Cogenhoe won 11-0 against Heyford earlier in the season, after going two goals up in the first half, it looked for a while like the floodgates might open, but they didn’t. Heyford did spend most of the time defending rather than attacking and not troubling the Cooks back four of Sam Duggan, Dan Hanger, Ricky Smith and skipper Lee Haines very often.
A ball from a throw-in landed at Stephen Carroll’s feet and he turned and took one step to set the ball up before rifling it from outside the area across the goal beating everyone in front of him with the ball hitting the bottom of the post before it crossed the goal-line. 0-3.
Heyford finally won themselves a free-kick in a dangerous area for Cogenhoe, but the kick when taken by the number 17 from Heyford was hit straight at Cooks keeper Stuart Scofield who was able to catch the ball and cleared up field. Paul Carroll was unlucky when with the whole goal to shoot at, the ball bobbled just a touch in front of him and his kick ended up going just wide.
Cogenhoe midfielder Craig Smith was the next player on the score sheet when from close range he blasted the ball into the net to put his side 4 nil up at half time. 0-4
My match notes for the second half of this game is rather blank I’m afraid, honestly there really isn’t much to write about except that Cogenhoe were doing all they could to break Upper Heyford down, but along with a small pitch and a lot of defending to a man, Heyford were able to grind out a 0-0 second half which against the top of the table team, they would be happy with that.
One real chance did see a shot from Doni Reed just take a snick of a defenders boot with the ball hitting the crossbar and out for a corner.
Final score, Upper Heyford 0 Cogenhoe 4.
A sixth clean sheet of the league season and another 4 goals see’s Cogenhoe 15 points clear at the top of division 3 with plus 73 goal difference.
Next game.
Cogenhoe vs O.N. Chenecks
MK Vets cup quarter final.
Compton Park
April 16th 10-30.
