Mens 4s opened the billing this weekend for their second of back to back home games. This season the Mens 4s welcome a wave of new players, with 8 players in their first senior season at the club including 4 juniors stepping up. They packed the pitch with a full size squad that included club veterans and experience gave them a well rounded team.

Bicester were spirited and in the opening 15 minutes of the game dominated the possession and pitch position that saw the ball entirely inside berko’s half, however were just unable to get space inside the D for shots on goal.

In the 15th minute, all changed as Berko sent a crash ball deep inside their own half forward taking an unfortunate touch that gave them a long corner, with Bicester not setting a press on the taker allowed them to walk inside the D to power a shot into the far bottom corner to take the lead against run of play.

Berko now with some confidence allowed them to see more of the ball and very shortly afterwards were again on the attack, winning another long corner and in similar fashion took it early and played the ball across the penalty spot, taking touches from multiple sticks the ball bobbled into the goal as they extended their lead.

As the game opened up more, a well worked move down the right side gave Bicester a chance after winning a short corner in the 21st minute. Taken well with a pass to slip the ball looked set to find the backboard when a defender stick appeared and sent it into the crossbar and cleared their lines.

With some continued play down the sides again giving Bicester the opportunities, a through ball pass gave Jamie and 1 on 1 with the keeper, who did well to save the shot. As the half time whistle approached, the game started to become more physical and some frustrations started to fly, as multiple players received warnings from the umpires. Being 2-0 down at half time, Bicester used the break to reset and go again.

3 minutes is all it took, on the front foot working the ball down the right hand side, Kye was able to dribble past the defenders and power a shot at a fairly tight angle into the backboard to bring the game to 2-1.

Just after this a heavy challenge and collision between players saw both fall to the floor, the berko player not happy let out some unpleasant language and was shown a yellow card.

Through the middle of the pitch, Junior player Herbie was relentless in attack showing some great skill and confidence on the ball. His efforts paid off to give Bicester only the second short of the game. Another taken well but was too direct at the keeper for the save.

With the game starting to stretch more, space was plentiful. A quick out 16 from Speedy gave some other juniors the chance to shine as Kieran & Logan linked up down the left hand side to cut through berko and create an overload, unfortunately the final pass was too heavy.

The clock ticking and the need to find the equalizer becoming greater, Justin pushed forward using his experience to turn the ball over higher and keep the pressure on. With minutes left in the game he fed a lovely ball through to Tush playing high. Inside the D alone and the keeper bearing down on him, a twist and turn gave him space to flick the shot off as it unfortunately went inches wide of the far post.

That became the last meaningful play of the game, unfortunate to not pick up points in a game that had some dominant possession from Bicester. However, the game showed some huge potential for the side, Both new players and juniors showing that they can learn and develop quickly, whilst more experienced players are on hand to help their development.