Youth Reports 2016-17

30 April 2017

Harvesters South 1  Northwood Reds Under 13s 2

With only 11 players available this week the only real decision we had was who played where, especially as we had both goalkeepers Rayyan and Dan Davey available. The decision was made that we would ask Dan D to play on pitch and he fitted in at centre half as if he had been playing there all his life; he had a magnificent match stopping everything as well as finding our players when he passed the ball. His partner in crim and Ale also equipped themselves well, both doing exactly what was asked of them. The midfield three of Lewis Ryan, Dan Terry & Dan Jago worked hard from the start to the end of the game and broke up a lot of the Harvesters passing which was quite neat at times and created a lot of chances going forward as well. Our attacking three of Sam, Lewis Reid and Ashley also worked their socks off against a well-disciplined Harvesters defence with Lewis and Sam working backwards well as moving the ball forward well. Ashley again proved that on his day he is quite unstoppable, I think he put the fear of god into the Harvesters defence who quite simply could not stop him.

The game was as expected a very nervous affair but we did have to good chances early on with Ashley going 1v1 with the keeper twice once hitting his shot at him the second time lifting the ball over him only to hit the bar, was it going to be one of those days? Harvesters did play a lot of the football as they always do but never really had the finish that the build-up play deserved, but they did go close as they also hit the post and Rayyan saved well on a couple of occasion as well as the defence blocking and stopping other efforts. Then on the 27th minute Lewis Reid put another great pass through to Ashley, who this time finished well to take the lead into the half time break.

We very much encouraged the boys to go out and continue their fantastic work rate but to try and get a bit closer to the Harvesters players to stop the neat little triangles there were working. Eight minutes into the second half Harvesters did get the reward they deserved when they did break through the back 4 to make it 1-1. Both John and I looked around at the players, and not one head dropped in fact they seemed to step the effort up another level. The game ebbed and flowed from half to half and you could see that the boys were getting very tired as Harvesters kept freshening their side up by using their subs well. We made a quick change at the back which did help steady the defence and added a little more shape to the midfield. Just as I thought that we would have to settle for a very well earned point San fed a great pass through to Ashley who somehow threaded the ball pass the Harvesters keeper into the goal to make it 1-2 with only a 2 minutes to go. The boys went five at the back, with George and Dan Jago tucked in front as well as they realised that we needed to win the match and decided to manage the final two minutes, which for me was great to see.

Line-up: Rayyan, Ale, George, Arun, Dan Davey , Lewis Ryan, Dan Terry, Dan Jago, Lewis Reid, Sam, Ashley.

Well done to all the boys today; even though Arun got the award there was 11 players of the match for me today.

Dave Blincko