Jets Bounce Back To Their Best
Langley 1 Oxhey Jets 1
13th December 2023
Combined Counties Division One
Jets bounced back from their Herts FA Centenary Shield defeat on Saturday, everybody learned their lessons about complacency and turned in a stunning performance away at one of the league’s top sides.
Langley took an early lead but Jets levelled in the 43rd minute. Olly Pope made a superb searching through ball that set up Archie James who made no mistake to pull Jets level.
Jets lost Danny Fowler from the defence at half-time as he suffered a nasty cut on his ankle, but Archie Sykes came on and did well and the defence, who played great as a unit all night continued to keep Langley at bay.
It was turning into an end-to-end game which raised the passion on both sides. In the 77th minute, Langley were reduced to 10 men for what can only be described as a rugby tackle by their number 17. Some banter between the dugouts ended up with what seemed to be a needless sending-off of a person from each dugout.
The sending-off actually seemed to spur the home side on, making them go all out for the winner. Jets, though, could have had the winner but in an incident remarkably similar to the ref stopping the advantage in the recent Man City game, Archie James was through one-on-one with the Langley keeper before the whistle went to bring it back for a Jets free-kick and a Langley booking.
It’s fair to say that in a 1-1 game where both sides played well and Jets were back to their best, Jets were not happy with some of the refereeing decisions throughout the match.
Some outstanding performances across the whole team with some stunning play from Archie James; Olly Pope and Dylan Hickman-Singh back to their earlier season form; some fluid passing play and runs, and sound defensive play. The Carlsberg Jets Man of the Match award went to skipper Harry Brady for his leadership and his part in the strong defensive unit.