After a successful midweek outing to Bloxham for a series of shorter games (v MCS, Bloxham and Abingdon) in the county champs, the squad were looking forward to renewing acquaintances with MCS.

Friday's training session was spent working on the basic principles of looking after the ball in congested areas of the pitch with multiple repetitions completed on rolling strong and playing an easy, early pass to a team mate in space. As yet, the squad have struggled to really appreciate the importance of this discipline.

MCS have two very good centre backs capable of playing aerial balls over decent distance. As such, this was the first time that the Radley XI were challenged in a 3D nature. Mr Hills spoke to the squad about the laws associated in controlling an aerial ball and some of the basic skills needed to do so. Radley struggled to break down the organised MCS defence, again, their best players stacked across their defensive unit. Despite enjoying the lions share of possession, Radley couldn't find the clinical skills needed to break the dead lock. In the future Radley will need to find "something" at these times, a short corner for example. Despite lots of D entries, we didn't manage to work one short corner in the first half.

Radley were energised by some wise words from Mr Hills at half time. The play was more urgent and saw Radley start to become the more prominent XI. A goal line scramble of epic proportions saw Radley take the lead. It was a scrappy way to break the deadlock but one that was probably deserved.

The game finished at 1-0, with no further real chances landing in the lap of either side. There was super support presnet for a team who will no doubt aspire to play with the pace and accuracy evident between the two senior XI's who played out a 2-2 draw of very high quality on Friday night under lights.