The game began with the players making more noise than the sparse crowd of 205.
Burnham made a lively start, as was expected, forcing a save out of Worgan in the first few minutes. In fact the visitors pressure almost paid off when a nice move, with a hint of off-side, found Davies in a position to shoot just wide on 12 minutes. The first twenty minutes Burnham made some good pressure moves and only a lack of accuracy and real fire power up front prevented them from scoring.
On 24 minutes Aylesbury's first real chance of any note was a fluffed shot from Bangura following a lovely fluid move involving Baker and Joe. In fact Roni Joe was a constant thorn in the visitors side during the first half, with some lovely pacey runs on the right hand side. Steve McGrath looked comfortable in midfield and Joe Baker was useful on the left.
A spectacular over head kick on 27 minutes fell to Charles, but dropped agonisingly wide. We made more chances as the half went on, but lacked any real finishing. The same could also be said of the visitors, who lacked any real punch in the final third, despite making a pretty good fist of holding the midfield.
Several times in the first-half there were examples of questionable officiating. Burnham often fell into a well honed Ducks off-side trap, but were completely missed by both lino and ref.
The first half ebbed and flowed, and looked like ending in stalemate. Just on the stroke of half-time though a lovely solo move by Chris Bangura found him 1 on 1 with Honey in the visitors goal. Bangers, cool as the proverbial cucumber, rounded the helpless keeper and slotted into an empty net. 1-0 Aylesbury
No sooner had the game restarted, than the ref blew for half time.
First Half Summary:- The visitors started breezily, creating good chances, but showed poor finishing, stifling us to few good chances.
Steve McGrath made way for substitute Ryan Wiffin at the start of the second half, this appeared to be a tactical move. Chris Bangura moved into a more midfield position (at which he was exceptional), while Wiffin became Charles' striking partner.
The game at this point seemed to explode into life, your intrepid reporter scurrying to the warmer climes of the stand as my poor fingers were freezing in the chicken run.
Burnham hitting the side netting in the first minute of the half inspired the Ducks into action. Wiffin made his presense felt within 6 minutes when he latched onto a sublime through ball, to slot past the keeper. 2-0 Aylesbury
A minute later, on 52 minutes, a Joe Baker pass from the left found Julian Charles in the penalty area. Charles spun round to fire in the Ducks third goal from close range. 3-0 Aylesbury
A speculative shot from Wiffin a moment later and a lovely Joe screamer across the goal warmed the crowd.
The Ducks scored another on 58 minutes, with Wiffin getting his second. A lovely move found the young striker on the left of the penalty area, and he controlled his shot excellently, across the goal and into the far corner. 4-0 Aylesbury
The game now, no disrespect to the visitors, became exhibition stuff. Bangura was relishing his position in midfield and his distribution and link up play was first rate. The entire Ducks performance was composed, and Phil Dicker's control was good in the second half, as was Richard Gell's. In fact the whole side worked really hard.
I really felt that Burnham had hit a consolation goal on the hour (they deserved one), but the ball was scraped out.
The decisive 5th came on 63 minutes when a defensive blunder let Julian Charles in to tap into an empty net from close range. 5-0 Aylesbury
Lewis Pritchard replaced Roni Joe on 68 minutes and Jay Gould replaced Joe Baker a moment later.
All in all a much better second half than first, Ryan Wiffin made his precense felt from thes start, but Bangura's move into midfield was the catalyst that made this happen.
My man of the match:- Chris Bangura - has he found himself a new position? Move over The Fist (only joking!), but were you taking notes Mr Cordery?