Jake White scored all the goals as Wokingham & Emmbrook inflicted a 4-0 defeat on Woodley United at Lowther Road on Saturday to stay unbeaten in the Uhlsport Hellenic League.
But the manner in which he was denied the chance of a fifth didn’t go down too well with joint-manager Matt Eggleston.
His in-form striker had already netted a penalty, so when the Sumas were awarded another spot-kick early in the second half he expected White to take it.
Instead, it was Nick Bateman who stepped up and his effort struck the top of the crossbar and went over.
Eggleston said: “I know why they gave the ball to Nicky, but Jake should have taken it.
“I realise Nicky hasn’t scored for a while and they wanted to give him his chance of a goal, but when your penalty taker is on the pitch, he takes them. It won’t happen again. We need every goal we can get in case it (league placings) comes down to goal-difference.”
Starting with a penalty, White struck in the eighth, 33rd, 37th and 48th minutes as he took his season’s tally to an impressive 13 goals in nine league games, the highest total in the whole of the league, one more than Binfield skipper Sean Moore.
“Although every credit to Jake for his good goals, Luke Scope deserves a great deal of praise as his work rate was unreal. He never stopped running and his hard work helped Jake to score,” commented Eggleston.
He was pleased with the work rate shown by his whole team, adding: “It was pleasing to keep a clean sheet.”I thought our back three was solid for the whole game, I don’t think they lost a header and Woody (Sean Woodward) had only to make one or two saves all afternoon, so overall I am really delighted with our performance today.
“We should have had more goals, but the pitch did make things difficult.”
Sumas were missing a number of players for various reasons, while they have lost Archie Carter, the Berkshire county cricketer, to Woodley and he was among the substitutes on a quick return to Lowther Road.
This coming Saturday, Wokingham are away to Abingdon Town, who have just brought in manager Lee Matthews and several players from Premier Division side Ardley United.
“With a new manager and players from a Premier Division club, Abingdon will be strong, so it’s going to be a tough ask for us,” added Eggleston.
“But we are not frightened of anyone in this league. We know what we need to do. We play to plan which the lads are sticking with it, they are also training hard.”
Wokingham & Emmbrook Reserves won 6-0 away to Westfield Reserves in Uhlsport Hellenic Divison Two South, with goals from Ollie Pritchard (2), Matt-Burns Peake (2), James Clark and Jack Mullan.
