Following last week’s win at home to struggling Daventry, the Ducks travelled to Holloways Park to take on Beaconsfield SYCOB who were sitting second bottom of the league, who had conceded 10 goals in their last 3 matches. Buoyed by the news of the signing of the league’s top goal scorer Lewis Putman, the travelling fans were full of hope and in good heart prior to the match. However, as so often happens in football, expectations aren’t always realised and this proved to be the case today. Tony Joyce was forced into 2 enforced changes, with Putman replacing the unavailable Jason Blackett and Ryan Freshwater filling in at right back for the suspended Shane Wood. Greg Williams was also restored to the starting XI in place of Lea Coulter who dropped to the bench.

It was a slow start to the match, with much of the play in the middle of the park, neither side managing to test the keeper in the opening exchanges. It took until the 23rd minute for the first real opportunity, Ollie Jones on the right flank finding Aaron Berry,whose shot from just outside the penalty area was easy for Jack Sillitoe to collect. The Ducks responded straight away with Stacey Field passing the ball wide to Paul Edgeworth. His cross into the 6 yard box gave Shaun Owens a fantastic opportunity to open the scoring, however he chose to try to volley the ball home when surely a header would have brought better reward, his attempt on goal scrambled away by the defence. It was the home side who had began to have the better opportunities as the half developed, with Ashley Kelynackhaving two shooting opportunities from outside the box, however neither troubled Sillitoe. The warning signs were there for the Ducks as the home side upped the pressure on Sillitoe’s goal, but they went unheeded by the visiting defence; on 30 minutes Aaron Berry beat Jake Bewley down the right flank and crossed to Aaron Couch who had the easiest of tap ins to open the scoring. Somewhat stung into action, Putman had an opportunity to draw level; he chased a Shaun Owens ball down the left flank, beat his defender only to see his goal bound shot deflected away. From the resulting corner, John Mulholland headed high over the bar. There was to be a succession of Aylesbury corners as the half drew to a close, but all to no avail as the home defence dealt comfortably with each attack. In the dying seconds of the half, home keeper Sam Bunting made the save of the match so far, with a point blank effort to keep out Stacey Field’s shot following a Steve Hatch header.

No changes made by either side at half time as the Ducks looked to get back into the match. However, it soon turned sour for the visitors as the hosts scored twice in the first 10 minutes of the half to make the game safe. First a long ball forward found Kelynack who outpaced Freshwater and easily slotted the ball past Sillitoe. Just two minutes later and Couch added his second; a ball in from the left by Berry found the striker unmarked and he easily beat Sillitoe from the edge of the area. As if things weren’t bad enough, two minutes later Stacey Field was adjudged to have stamped on home full back Tom Gant as he fell over his prostate body, resulting in a harsh red card. On the hour mark, Tony Joyce made a bold triple substitution in an attempt to get the Ducks back into the game, Bill Morgan, Joey Acheampong and Jesse Waites sent on to replace John Mulholland, Shaun Owens and Paul Edgeworth. It was to no avail however, as the home side made their numerical advantage count and dominated the remainder of the match, with the Ducks not managing to trouble the home keeper any further. In the 67th minute Sillitoe did well to tip a Lee Togwell drive over the bar, sustaining what appeared to be a dislocated finger in the process. As he trotted off for treatment he managed to relocate the finger himself and returned undeterred to his goal!The rest of the match was one way traffic and if it wasn’t for some inspired saves from Sillitoe the scoreline could have reached even more embarrassing proportions.The final goal came in the 2nd minute of added on time, as a long ball found substitute Omari Patrick on the edge of the box and he gave Sillitoe no chance as he scored his team’s fourth goal.

So a day which started with so much hope ended in a bitter anti-climax. On the face of it, losing by 4 goals to a team who were second bottom of the league is extremely disappointing, but it has to be said that Beaconsfield deserve full credit for their performance, which truly belied their lowly position in the league. Field will miss 3 games following his red card, but hopefully with the unavailable players from today’s match in contention for next Saturday’s tough looking home match against Northwood, the Ducks can bounce back with at least a better performance.