Windsor 2 - Henley 2

Windsor 3’s opened their home campaign and claimed their first league point with a spirited comeback against a strong Henley side. The rain from storm Alex had abated in time for the start of the game and Windsor wandered onto the pitch looking like their first priority was to enjoy a casual stroll in the afternoon sunshine. Henley were left socially distanced enough by the Windsor defence to have several chances to score in the first 10 minutes and finally got the ball past evergreen goalkeeper Jim Breach to take the lead.

The early setback was a much-needed wake up call, and Windsor managed to string a few passes together for the first time in the match, sweeping the ball from right to left, down to the baseline and across the goal for Jason Perry to slide in and deflect in at the back post to equalise. The goalscoring move had so much quality it would not have looked out of place in the National League. Sadly that quality disappeared again almost immediately and Henley went back into the lead within minutes, given too much time and space to complete with a tidy finish to make the score 2-1.

Windsor went back on the attack, and a short corner gave Yash Rampersand his first ever Windsor goal in 20 years at the club, firing in via several deflections. The goal has since been re-assessed by the dubious goals panel and is now listed as an own goal. So it remained two all, into half time.

Come the second half. Windsor started to look like a team who had played together before and produced several flowing moves, sadly without an end result. Both teams won a number of short corners which were not converted. Windsor’s short corner, "variations" all involved hitting the ball straight at the Henley goalkeeper, and when the best chance of the game fell to Ben Hefford he managed to swing himself off his feet and collapse in a heap on the floor, without making any sort of connection with the ball.

Plenty of positives can be taken forward from the game, including the result, and Windsor can use Wednesday night’s training sessions to work on finishing chances and developing at least one other short corner routine.