RESSIES DECIDE TO MAKE IT INTERESTING

Fritwell Res 2 - 1 Freeland Res

Freelands title hopes were dealt a crushing blow at the hands of Fritwell Reserves. Freeland came into the game knowing two wins from three games would more than likely hand them the league. However, Fritwell, with a much changed side than the reverse fixture at Freeland, still had outside hopes of promotion of their own.

Freeland flew out of the blocks and could have been a goal up within a minute, when straight from kick off Sadler found Salter who neatly laid off to winger Scroggs, who beat two men but could only watch in despair as his shot rolled inches wide with the keeper beaten. It was then top scorer Salters chance to put Freeland in front when he had two chances in two minutes only to blaze both over the bar from eight yards.

The opening period was all Freeland, and the Fritwell front men did not see much of the ball as it was all one way traffic, winger Scroggs was giving the full back a torrid time with his mazy runs. Freeland strikers Glastonbury and Salter were once again superb in their linkup play and combined well for Freelands goal when chunky striker Glastonbury flicked the ball on for Slater to latch on to and fire home.

Fritwell were still being confined to long balls, which club carthorse Si Hole was dealing with admirably, bread and butter for the big man. Just before half time Fritwell scored arguably the best goal of the day, when a long ball caught the Freeland defence flat footed and striker Iglus slotted home with a great finish.

The second half was much the same, with Freeland doing much of the attacking and Fritwell happy to break on the counter. A succession of corners for Freeland brought a number of goal mouth scrambles, but to no avail and it seemed like it was to be one of those afternoons.

Surprisingly it was Fritwell who took the lead when another long ball found striker Sweeney who lobed the oncoming Leach. This meant Freeland had no choice but to commit men forward as they tried to chase the game. With backs against the wall, this brought out the worst in Fritwell, who were starting to put in some nasty tackles and even found their Captain spitting at a Freeland player.

A Sadler free kick from thirty yards was parried by the keeper and the rebound was blocked on the line by a defender and Hole could not turn the ball in from an acute angle. Despite a gung ho approach for the last ten minutes Freeland could just not find the elusive goal and in a game that for the majority they had dominated can feel very hard done by not to have taken at least a point from the game.

And if they are to win the league they will have to do it the hard way, starting with the massive game against Marston on Thursday.