Chadlington First Team opened up their Oxfordshire Junior Shield campaign on Saturday as they entertained Bloxham FC of the Banbury District & Lord Jersey League Premier Division.
Entertainment was certainly the name of the game as the sodden spectators were treated to a 10 goal thriller and a potential shocking come back from the visitors.
With rain lashing it down the kick off was delayed by 10 minutes due to Bloxham having only 9 players to start the game. The delay didn't affect Chadlington as they soon took command of the game and unsurprisingly found buckets of space on the pitch to comfortably knock the ball around.
Goals from Jacob Hazlewood, Ethan Bennett, Alfie Peachey, Gustavo Boeing along with a fine freekick from Jarvis Morley gave Chad a 5-0 lead at half time and the game looked done and dusted.
Five changes were made at half time as Matt Chadwick, Lee Woodward, Josh Betts, Cam Newton-Grain and Rocky Burton were introduced. Perhaps it was these changes, the cold and wet or the half time oranges but the second half was a complete turnaround.
As Bloxham were now at a full compliment of 11 players they began to get into the match and grabbed their first goal early on. Not to worry though, it was surely just a consolation. This was reinforced when Jarvis Morley grabbed his second of the game to make it 6-1 and Chad were still attacking at will.
It was this attacking nature that opened Chad up at the back and Bloxham decided that extra time might be a fun thing to do. They grabbed 3 more goals to make it 6-4 and even had another ruled out by referee Callum Jordan.
In reality the game was never really in doubt but it did make for a twitchy end to the game and closer than it should ever have been. Chadlington go through to round two of the Junior Shield and in cup competitions, that is all that matters.
Final Score 6-4
Team: Bayliss, Godin, Walker, Hughes, Foster, Korge, Bennett, Hazlewood, Morley (c), Boeing, Peachey. Subs: Chadwick, Burton, Betts, Newton-Grain, Woodward.