Following last week’s disappointing late equaliser against Biggleswade, Tony Joyce opted to revert to a more familiar 4-4-2 formation, the only change in personnel being the absence of the unavailable John Mulholland, replaced in defence by skipper Jack Wood, with Lewis Hallford coming into the team and filling the right wing berth. Both Melford Simpson and Ivailo Dimitrov returned to the bench after missing last week’s match.

The game kicked off in a bitterly cold swirling wind, which made passing football a problem throughout. It was the Ducks who started the game strongest, pinning the Jets defence deep in their own half. On 6 minutes, Ben Baines saw his defence splitting pass reach Paul Edgeworth, who drew a good save from Darren Bonfield in the home goal when perhaps he should have done better, the keeper touching the ball just wide of his right hand post. The first 20 minutes of the game were dominated by the Ducks, although the lack of a real cutting edge was a worry, with nothing to show for the early superiority. The first real attack from the home side came in the 22nd minute, when good work by Lee Inch set up Lewis Putnam in front of goal. With just the keeper to beat, he chose to place the ball instead of going for power, but only succeeded in hitting the bar. Some desperate last ditch defending followed, before the danger was finally averted. This was soon followed by Putnam again wasting a gilt edged chance, released by a through ball from Inch, he pushed the ball past the post. With the game swinging one way then the other, next it was Aylesbury’s chance to go close, Danny Jones’ inswinging free kick was headed over his own bar by McIntyre under pressure from Baines.

The Ducks were soon made to pay for their earlier failure to capitalise on their strong start, when Putnam made it 3rd time lucky after a fine move. Jack Wood was caught out of position up field, and with no cover, Gavin Hart worked the ball down the left flank to Paul Danslow, who laid the ball on a plate for Putnam, who calmly slotted it past Jack Sillitoe. It nearly got a whole lot worse for the Ducks, Sillitoe called on to make a fine save at his near post just 3 minutes later to deny Putnam a second after he had got the better of Jack Wood.

At half time, Tom Barnett was replaced by Justin Gordon, with the Ducks switching to, on the face of it a more attacking 3-5-2 formation. Danny Jones moved up to left midfield with Gordon replacing him in defence alongside Luke Flood and Jack Wood. Change of formation or not, it didn’t seem to change the Ducks fortunes, with no clear cut chances being created in the first 10 minutes. Lewis Hallford had the Ducks first shot in anger after 58 minutes, when he beat his man on the right wing and cut inside to fire a stinging left foot drive which Bonfield had to be alert to save. This was to be Hallford’s final contribution of a hard working performance, as moments later he was replaced by the livewire Joey Acheampong. What a substitution it was to be, as, in the 63rd minute, with his first touch of the ball, he beat two defenders down the right and fired a great ball, low across the 6 yard box and on a plate to Ben Baines at the far post to score his 9th goal of the season.

The second half had developed into an end to end pattern, the next chance falling to McIntyre, who headed firmly against the bar from a corner, with Sillitoe beaten. Inch then had a golden opportunity to score for the home side, but could only shoot straight at Sillitoe from 10 yards out after good work down the right side. However, it was the Jets who finished the game stronger, and took a deserved lead on 84 minutes. With the Ducks shortmanned in defence, Inch played Putnam in down the left wing, who squared the ball for Danslow to place the ball past a helpless Sillitoe from 6 yards out. An almost identical move 2 minutes later almost saw a 3rd goal for the Jets, but this time there was no one on hand to convert Putnam’s ball across goal. That proved to be the final action of the game, and all in all, another disappointing result, leaving the Ducks 8th in the table; Tony Joyce must be wondering where the early season confidence and form his team had displayed has gone. He will now have 2 weeks to ponder the question before they face Stotfold at Bell Close on 10th December.

Thanks to Ian Pluck for the report