Woodcote dragged themselves up from a poor first-half performance to snatch the win against worthy opponents on Saturday in the Hellenic Division 2 (East). In an exciting tussle in front of around 40 spectators on the Village Green the visitors were worthy of their 2-0 lead at the interval, both goals in the 5th and 15th minutes coming as the result of poor defending in the home team’s rear-guard.
Woodcote’s play lacked its usual fluency with too many passes going astray and they created few chances, the best falling to Toby Nowell whose shot was well saved and Tommy Chapman whose long-range effort hit the crossbar. Manager, Andy Silver, rung the changes at half-time and it seemed to work as a sustained period of attacking led to a foul in the area and the award of a penalty. There was little wrong with Ryan Corbett’s penalty, but the Penn keeper pulled-off a superb save. Within a couple of minutes, in an almost identical situation, Toby Nowell was fouled and this time Frank Dillon stepped-up to score from the spot. At last, the home team switched into gear and Joe Webber’s pace and trickery became a significant factor providing the assist for the equaliser on 65 minutes. His pull-back found Toby Nowell who rifled home an unstoppable shot.
Penn continued to look dangerous on the break and Mark Pearson in the home goal was tested on a couple of occasions. On 70 minutes Woodcote got the winner when Matt Ploszynski’s left-foot shot almost trickled over the line while the Penn defence stood frozen to the spot expecting it to go wide. The drama was not yet over as Woodcote were forced to play-out the last ten minutes a man short when skipper, Tommy Chapman was shown a second yellow card.
Penn threw everything into the attack and Mark Pearson made a brilliant late save as the home side hung on for the win which keeps them in second place two points behind Watlington with three games in hand.
