Leicester Forest v Olney - 2nd September 2023

Welcome to another season of these views from the touchline. Apparently the two or three regular readers actually look forward to these words of wisdom even if most of it makes very little sense and has only vague recollections of the match on the day. As ever there is no intention to upset anyone so please don’t get all sensitive and “woke” which seems to be happening everywhere else nowadays.

Olney travelled to Leicester Forest with a mixture of new, experienced, old and young players of varying shapes and sizes. A fine body of men, women, non-binary and gender fluid individuals! Having only introduced themselves in the changing rooms, on a sunny day and the heat radiating off the plastic pitch it would be a tough afternoon for the visitors. Indeed it was Forest who opened the scoring after 5 minutes following a lineout 10 metres out. Olney hit back soon after when Will Brock broke clear, chipped inside for Marcus Goss to collect and score close to the posts, converted by Brock. The next two restarts proved costly for Olney though. The first saw a penalty try awarded for what was deemed as a deliberate knock on and a yellow card to go with it. The next one, Olney allowed Forest a little too much space and hard running with good support gave them another score under the posts. 14 points in a couple of minutes and the hosts were well ahead at 19-7. Olney then started to up the pace a bit which gave them the upper hand and forced Forest into committing errors leading to two yellow card being shown for a high tackle and not retreating. No more scores before the end of the half.

Olney were confident after the break against 13 men but Forest had a scrum 5 metres from the Olney line and broke off to score and increase their lead. The Olney boys still like to attack though, and were rewarded with a fine team try finished by Brandon Kerr. End to end stuff and Forest were next to score with their hooker touching down wide on the left followed by a fine conversion. Debutant Mac Staughton finished a well-executed move for Olney when touching down left of the posts. Forest hit back again with a good move along the left wing, eventually running in to score behind the uprights. Harry Bennett, who had been having a good game all day, caught the Forest defence napping when he took a quick tap and bagged a try to close the scores and a bonus point for Olney. Late on in the game the hosts had the final say when they added a further try to take the end result to 45-26.

Overall this was not as bad as the score may suggest and some good performances from the Olney lads. New prop Leonard Idiakhoa will prove to be an asset if he continues as he did today. Rob Morgan also had a fine game in the second row. Gareth Cahill seems to keep going despite his age. Slim line Rich Cowan did well coming out of retirement and Captain Eddie Goss led by example as usual.

The few travelling supporters were not too disappointed and had a day out in the sun. Mr Harris and his carer were pleased to be out in the open air and Plod Soman told us all about earlier in the summer when he caught his willy in his zip. He’s now thrown those zip up boots in the bin!