1 | ||
2 | ||
3 | ||
4 | ||
5 | ||
6 | ||
7 | 15, 78m | |
8 | ||
9 | ||
10 | 12, 82m | |
11 | ||
BENCH | ||
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12 | 10, 82m | |
14 | ||
15 | 7, 78m | |
16 | ||
17 |
And a first half which United commanded seemed to indicate an easy three points were staying in Buckinghamshire. But the visitors had other ideas and fought back to equalise United's two-goal half time advantage within eleven minutes of the restart, ater Aylesbury apparently never made it out of the dressing rooms.
The match started slowly, Luke Melisi's weak left-footed effort the closest thing to goalmouth action in the first fifteen minutes, whilst at the other end Kevin Slack headed tamley wide after Dan Avery's long throw.
United sprung into life when they took the lead after 24 minutes. Gutzmore's cross from the right dropped to Kevin Mealor who took aim with a fierce drive which John Skeen could only parry. Melisi gobbled up the loose ball and cheekily dinked the ball into the net from a difficult angle. 1-0 Aylesbury
Ben Stevens nearly made it two when his improvised flick from Daniel Mead's free-kick shaved the upright.
The score was doubled in almost identical fashion to the opener. Mealor's powerful effort forced Skeen into the parry, which fell kindly for Gutzmore to fire into the empty net. 2-0 Aylesbury
A minute later Matt Collins fired a warning at the other end with a low shot, but it was easily held by Tom Vincent.
Gutzmore slashed wide a 30-yard speculative shot having collected Skeen's poor goal kick. The Villagers then had a chance as Kevin Slack volleyed wide after a corner kick found its way to him on the area's edge.
It was Aylesbury who had all the chances to add to the scoring as the first half drew to a close, Melisi broke down the left and hit a floating effort towards the top corner, which Skeen managed to gather.
Mealor headed wide at the far post, before Melisi caused havoc again with his pace by springing clear of the defence, rounding Skeen, but finding the angle against him and seeing his shot cleared off the line.
Aylesbury went into the break looking comfortable, at times the match had been too easy for them as they sat pretty on a two-goal lead.
Half-time: Aylesbury 2-0 Bishops Cleeve
Unfortunately it seemed Aylesbury's heads were still in the dressing room when they emerged after the interval, and the visitors had pulled a goal back inside a minute. Pete Moss pulled the ball back to Joe Egleton who placed a shot. This time it was Vincent who spilled the ball right into the path of Luke Corbett who easily converted. 2-1 Aylesbury
Conceding a goal shouldn't have been a problem, but the Villagers were a different team now, clearly on the end of a half-time rocket from their manager, whilst Aylesbury were ragged.
United were carved open ten minutes later as a flowing counter-attack resulted in a ball in from the right being missed by the first man, but Kevin Slack was on the end of it to fire home the equaliser. 2-2
As the shell shocked Ducks tried to recover, Slack forced Vincent into more work with a piledriver of a free-kick, although it was an easy take in the end.
Going into the last quarter of the game, Aylesbury finally began to get a foothold once again and they created enough chances to win the match.
A free-kick was worked back to Melisi who pulled a shot just wide of the left post. Melisi then intercepted a weak pass before breaking away and under great pressure managed to square the ball for Gutzmore, who couldn't make clean contact and could only watch as the ball rolled along the goal line.
Ben Stevens was the next man to go close, Silvestri chipped a delicate ball over the defence for Melisi, who teed up Stevens but he drilled the ball over.
Gutzmore played in Melisi, but this time he was denied by the legs of Skeen as the game entered the closing ten minutes.
From a deep corner kick Gutzmore rose to head against the outside of the far post, before Silvestri wasted the best chance of the second half having found himself with only Skeen to beat from 5-yards, but his shot lacked power the keeper made the save.
Bishops Cleeve had Dan Avery dismissed for a second bookable offence in stoppage time, but it made no difference to the outcome as Aylesbury had no time to mount another attack by that point, and had to settle for a draw. Something of a frustrating result after they had looked set for a comfortable win at half-time.