Valence 3s travelled to Sevenoaks looking to consolidate their 3rd position in the League. Valence has managed to scrape a close 3-2 victory earlier in the season and knew Sevenoaks would put up a strong opposition.
Valence started the game well and found themselves 1-0 up very quickly after good work from Marius Dreyer down the right-hand side and then a Rob Cockayne cross (shot) across the D for Alex Sandberg to finish at the far post. Sevenoaks responded quickly, levelling the score when one of their forwards found himself unmarked in the D and finished from close range. Valence did not let their heads drop and continued to put together good attacking moves, finding great success with short passes and taking advantage of the gaps between the Sevenoaks’ players. Cockayne added two further goals to his impressive tally for the season, but Sevenoaks had closed the gap to 3-2 by half time.
Valence continued to play well in the second half and put together a number of good attacks but failed to find the net. Sevenoaks managed to level the scores again, but Rob Cockayne completed his hat-trick to retake the lead from Valance’s first short corner of the match, a good strike from the top of the D which the keeper could not stop despite getting a strong stick on the ball.
Sevenoaks continued to attack and managed to equalise again from a late short corner which trickled into the corner of the goal leaving Valence with no time to reply as the game ended 4-4.
On reflection after the game, Valence were disappointed not to come away with the win but had a good performance against a capable opposition and still are in 3rd place overall.
Goals: Rob Cockayne (3); Alex Sandberg
Team: Georgia Wishart, Nick Hall, James Abrahams, Hamish Dow, Mark Whitmill, Adrian Gander, Chris Jackson, Duncan Field, Marius Dreyer, Alex Sandberg, Rob Cockayne, Tom Harris
Umpire Darren Thompson
Next week the 3rd Xl are away against Old Williamsonians 5th Xl, who are currently in 8th slot.