Oxhey Jets have produced some good and bad performances this season but none as baffling as Saturday’s 4-2 defeat at Westside.
The visitors were simply superb in the first half, spraying the ball around, making multiple passes, and doing everything the Jets staff coach and ask of them against a top-six side as they went into the break two goals to the good.
The quality of the display in the opening 45 minutes made what happened after the break even harder to understand. The conditions were the same, Jets even had the advantage of the slope on the pitch, but they totally collapsed as Westside came from behind to run out comfortable victors.
Noah Softleigh Moore made his first start for Jets and had a good chance in the first two minutes but was denied by a good save from the goalkeeper. It was an early warning of what was to come though, as the visitors set about producing a high quality display.
The hosts were frustrated and the first player was sent to the sin bin after just 20 minutes.
Three minutes later Jets took full advantage as, after a period of pressure and despite multiple saves by the keeper, Elliot Harris drove the ball home to make it 1-0.
It was all Jets and a flowing move started by returning full-back Danny Fowler flying up the wing was finished off by Harris for his second goal six minutes later.
Three more yellows and another sin bin for the home side followed as Jets continued to swamp forward, but their failure to convert chances into goals was to ultimately prove a disaster.
The half-time whistle made the two-and-a-half-hour drive seem worth it, but what followed was to show the optimism was too early as Jets' notorious slow start after the breaks again swung the game with loose passes.
The visitors were punished just five minutes in when Emmanuel Folorunso pulled one back in a goal-mouth scramble to make it 2-1.
Jets immediately looked vulnerable and five minutes later the game was all square as goalkeeper Lewis Lavin was adjudged to have committed a foul in the penalty area and Alex Foord converted the spot-kick.
The turnaround was completed in the 76th minute when Foord again converted from the spot as Jets completely lost their heads and conceded another rash penalty.
Deep into stoppage time, Kai George wrapped up the scoring, but Jets had gone by that stage and never looked like getting back into the game.
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