A remarkable week for Aylesbury ended with a third successive win, as the Ducks moved up to 18th in the table by becoming only the sixth side to win a league game at Petersfield Town this season.
Sonny French – enjoying a rare central midfield role in the absence of Shaun Owens – was star of the show with two goals, with the second a ‘once in a lifetime’ strike straight from the second half kick off.
Yet it was another supreme defensive performance that laid the foundations, highlighting the steady improvements United have shown in that area under Glyn Creaser and a far cry from the 6-2 defeat Petersfield inflicted on the sides’ last meeting.
Aylesbury were well organised and nigh on impossible to break down, even after the second half dismissal of Chris Crook left them with ten men for the closing fourteen minutes.
Their new-found confidence was evident in the opening exchanges that saw them twice hit the bar. After just six minutes French found Reece Cameron who showed fine skill to beat his man and fire in a shot that was palmed onto the bar by a shaky looking Luke Eaton.
The resulting French corner was met by the flying Greg Williams who beat everyone to crash a header against the bar, with Crook unable to control the rebound as he headed off target.
Bruno Brito drilled an early effort over the bar as the good start continued, but Petersfield should have levelled when a dangerous cross in from the right found Jordan Neal at the far post but he could only smash a shot over.
Stacey Field was next to have a decent chance when Cameron seized on a loose ball which again ran free into Field’s path to fire wide.
A minute later and Eaton escaped with only a caution for handling the ball outside the area, Williams only able to clear the goal with his free kick, but it marked the start of a flurry of yellow cards with, including a first for Crook.
On nineteen minutes Crook did well to head a dangerous free kick behind, and when the corner kick was played in low and deep it was teed up for an attacker whose shot was well blocked en route to goal.
Aylesbury took a deserved lead after twenty-minutes. A neat move involving Cameron and Field ended with the ball played to French who found the net with a low shot that Eaton will be disappointed not to have saved, as the ball looped into the net off his body. 1-0 Aylesbury
The action-packed encounter continued at pace and Town spurned another glorious chance when a cross in from the right saw Oualah seemingly fouled in mid-air, but the ball dropped to an attacker who lashed the ball wide of the open goal.
After United escaped a penalty appeal for a claimed foul on Jamie Ford by Lea Coulter, Joe Briggs sliced the ball badly wide, before Ford was in key action at the other end when he did superbly to clear Field’s shot off the line from Cameron’s help on.
Jake Bewley tried his luck with the outside of his boot as the subsequent corner was cleared as far as him, but his unfortunate slip in his more regular defensive position let in a Petersfield player to cut the ball back for Neal whose sweet volley hit the bar.
Despite The Rams’s upturn, it was Aylesbury who went into half time the dominant force. French chipped a shot wide having drawn the keeper when threaded through in the box, whilst more good interplay between him and Cameron saw the latter run through but hammer a shot wide.
Two minutes from the break, the ball was cleared off the Petersfield goal line for a second time. Brito in down the left picked out Shrieves in the box, whose effort was scrambled away by Lewis Hyde, dropping to Cameron who could only misplace his shot well wide.
Half-time: Petersfield 0-1 Aylesbury
With thoughts focussed on whether Aylesbury could maintain their excellent first half performance, nobody could have predicted what happened next.
As the kick off was touched to him, Sonny French thought ‘why not\'’ and struck a perfectly placed effort from the centre circle that the backpeddling Eaton did his best to keep out but could only help on its way into the top corner. A stunning goal. 2-0 Aylesbury
With one strike of his right foot, French had settled any half time nerves there might have been, but the hosts looked to hit back quickly. The impressive Howard Neighbour had been pulling all the strings without having a chance of his own, but when he got on the end of a right wing cross couldn’t get over the ball to direct it sufficiently.
Seconds later, United could have extended their lead as Stacey Field found Lea Coulter in the box who could only shoot firmly over the bar.
Then, a flowing move on the left this time saw Brito find Shrieves, who in turn played the ball to French whose effort was stopped by a last ditch block from Hyde.
Brito and Andrew Todd were both off target for their respective teams with efforts from outside the box, but when a searching ball into the area found Neal unattended he was only able to head wide.
Petersfield’s leading scorer Neighbour was always the most likely to score, and when he found himself with the ball at his feet close to goal following a couple of lucky ricochets, he looked odds on to add to his 21 goals of the season but instead ballooned over the bar.
A minute later Neighbour played the ball out wide before continuing his run into the box, and this time hit the target only to be denied by a fine save from the legs of Oualah.
The match kept up its excitement when a raking pass through the defence ended with Crook pulling back Todd who looked set to go clean through. Initially the referee failed to remember Crook’s earlier booking, until his assistant alerted him and Crook was sent for an early bath.
It left the Ducks facing the remaining 14 minutes a man short, but a quick switch of Lea Coulter to centre half and the introduction of Ricky Brown saw Aylesbury lose none of their defensive compactness.
Neighbour’s free kick for the Crook offence was struck straight into the wall, but he was soon back creating again when another ball to the right was delivered into the box, and headed over by Neal.
Neal then turned provider when he got in down the left and played the ball across goal where it was flicked straight at Oualah by the frustrated Neighbour. It wasn’t his or Petersfield’s day, with an utterly absorbing game finally coming to an end after a generous five minutes stoppage time played.
Another excellent win for the Ducks, who will now look to do the ‘unthinkable’ of what would be an incredible fourth straight win, at Haywood Way on Tuesday night against their most local of rivals Aylesbury FC.
