Monday 30th August 2021, Kick-off 15.00
Hellenic League Division One
The Heights, Milton Heights
Admission including programme: £5.00
Attendance: 75
For my August Bank Holiday Monday action, I could find no way of making a double including at least one new ground, and so in the end I decided to tick off my final ground in the Combined Counties League Division One with a visit to Wallingford Town. Those plans were scuppered as my train approached Reading, when Wallingford tweeted that the game was off due to the visitors being unable to field a team. Fortunately, I had a back-up plan and plenty of time to spare to go a stop further on the train to pay a visit to Milton United instead, for their local derby fixture against opponents six miles down the road.
The Heights is about a three mile walk from Didcot Parkway train station, taking just under an hour. Not the most pleasant of walks it has to be said, alongside a busy road, but at least it is straight, direct and footpathed all of the way. Spectators enter the ground along one of the lengths, with all of the spectator facilities along this length. To the left of the entrance towards the corner flag is a covered standing area in front of some cabins housing facilities for the physio, ground staff and laundry. To the right of the entrance is the players' entrance to the changing rooms, and connected to that is a covered stand, with the left third having four rows of individual seating, the right third four rows of wooden bench seating, whilst the middle third provides the entrance to the clubhouse, with a bar and tea bar inside. A few picnic tables have been scattered on grass to the side of the clubhouse, whilst the rest of this length and behind both ends there is hard standing. There is no hard standing along the remaining length. Behind this length further playing fields stretch out, whilst behind both ends, new housing has been recently built, and foundations for more building works have been laid behind the clubhouse length, with views of countryside in the distance. Pleasingly, a 16 page programme printed in full colour is produced by Milton United and is included in the admission price.
Early season form certainly pointed towards a home win today. Milton United had won three and drawn one of their opening five league games, with strangely all of their games so far being played at home. Scoring goals certainly hasn't been a problem for them, averaging four a game with 20 goals scored in five games. Abingdon United have had a difficult start to their season, losing all four of their games so far.
On an overcast afternoon with quite a chilly feel for late August, Milton United took the lead on 7 minutes. A low ball forward into the box saw the Milton player just get to the ball first and tap it around the keeper and although the ball kissed the right hand post, the ball eventually found its way to Brett Gardner, who drilled the ball home through several defenders. Although Milton had the majority of possession and attacking intent in the first half, it was Abingdon who had the standout chances to equalise, with a curled shot coming back off the bar on 19 minutes, whilst on 41 minutes, a header from a free kick forced the keeper to make a scrambled parry on to the bar.
So at half time the game was very much in the balance, but on 57 minutes, Milton gave themselves some breathing room by scoring a second when a free kick was whipped into the near post, the keeper couldn't claim it and Ollie Nadin bundled the ball home. The game now started to slip away from the visitors, as a couple of minutes later, following a quick break, a shot went just over the bar, and then on 66 minutes the home side scored their third, Nadin drove with the ball from deep on the left, kept on running and evading defenders before striking the ball across the keeper and into the net. They almost scored a fortunate fourth, when a cross from the right wind floated over the keeper and onto the crossbar, but they did find the back of the net again on 70 minutes, when Nadin completed his hat-trick. With Milton's player running through the Abingdon defence at will throughout the second half, it was quite a surprise that they only scored four, but Abingdon did have their moments going forward, and really should have grabbed a consolation on 88 minutes, when an Abingdon player rounded the keeper but could only shoot into the side netting with the goal at his mercy.
No comments:
Post a Comment