Despite the bad weather this week Williamscot Road survived for Cropredy to host their forth successive game as they welcomed basement club Bure Park.

For some reason this proved a tricky week, from going from an availability of 19 last week to only having 11 available players this week and no goalkeeper despite an extensive search throughout the week. Part-Time defender Kev Cooper offered his services to bulk up the squad and manager Lawrence O’Sullivan was forced to name himself as a substitute whilst defender Ruben Torego was the one who braved putting on the gloves as stand-in goalkeeper. On a good run of form, despite last week’s defeat to league leaders Bicester Hallions, it was hoped that Cropredy still had enough quality in their ranks to see the game through and provided some players who haven’t seen much action in recent weeks such as Harry Dunham a route back into the team.

Bure Park started the game more brightly and noticing it was the usual giant figure of James Cutts in the Cropredy goal, tried their luck with some long range efforts one of which was a tame effort that gave Torego an early opportunity to get his gloves on the ball. Cropredy did eventually start to dominate the possession and got themselves in some good positions with Luke Ulla Thomas and Jack Welch having shots off target.

Cropredy should have taken the lead on 18 minutes. Firstly Jack Welch had a shot that was headed off the line only into the path of Karl Woodcock whose shot at the back post was also cleared off the line into the path of Aaron Dineen who struck the crossbar and then into the mercy of Harry Dunham who blazed his shot over.

But it was the visitors who took the lead shortly after. A ball was played into the no man’s land between goalkeeper and defender, with indecision between Cooper and Torego. The onrushing striker nipped the ball from the former and around the latter to tap into an empty goal.

The visitors joy did not last long however. Woodcock - one of the few Cropredy players to come out of the game with any credit - received the ball in the left back position and made a clever pass down the line that via a Crop midfielder was played in behind the Bure Park defence into Welch who unselfishly squared the ball into Dunham who this time made no mistake and levelled the scores. Park tried to restore their advantage immediately, again trying their luck with a speculative long distance effort that clipped the top of the crossbar. Park sensing getting something from the match for the only the third time this season became aggressive in their approach which brought a string of fouls Cropredy’s way and the visitors were reduced to ten temporarily with a midfielder receiving a sin bin, but like last week Crop couldn’t make their numerical advantage count.

At the half-time interval Cropredy identified some areas that there were just not executing well and looked to take charge and win the game in the second period. They started the brighter of the two sides getting the ball into the Bure Park box on numerous occasions but the game turned on 55 minutes. A foul on the very edge of the box was contested by Bure Park as to whether it should have been a penalty but a free kick from 18 yards was the verdict from the referee. Their protestations were immaterial though as the close range free kick beat Torego and Bure Park had restored their advantage.

With injuries to Ben Coleman and Kev Cooper, O’Sullivan was forced to bring himself into the action at right-back for the final half-hour of the game as Cropredy looked to wrestle their way back into the contest. Their blushes looked to have been spared with eighteen minutes remaining when Harry Walters drove into the box and pulled the ball back to Dineen whose shot was too much for the Bure Park goalkeeper and found the net.

Cropredy we’re the one with their tails up and looking to complete the turnaround but the pendulum swung again in the favour of Park with ten minutes to go. An onrushing striker found his way past Woodcock and O’Sullivan and his shot from sixteen yards beat Torego and Cropredy were behind for the third time in the game. The lack of bodies in the Crop camp proved frustrating as there was nobody to help retrieve match balls as the visitors cleared every ball at least 30 yards from the pitch and went down for treatment at every opportunity as they aimed to run the clock down. Cropredy attempted in vain to find an equaliser but a lack of quality where it mattered cost them. A late Walters half chance going wide being the closest they got.

Congratulations to Bure Park who proved that there is no such thing as an easy game in the Oxfordshire Senior League Premier Division. For Cropredy it was a missed opportunity to move into their targeted top five and will be looking to bounce back with a tough trip away to Kennington Athletic next week.

Cropredy: Cutts, Coleman (Bartlett 50), Cooper (O’Sullivan 62), Jefferies, Woodcock, Dee, Ulla Thomas, Welch (C) Dunham, Walters, Dineen

Goals:

Bure Park 24
Dunham 28
Bure Park 55
Dineen 71
Bure Park 80