YOUNGSTARS CONTINUE TO PERFORM IN FINAL QUARTER

MYS Blue Stripes 8 - 5 Dunbar Colts White (16May09)

Another week, another home game. This week we were denied Lennon’s services due to holidays.

We made a bright start with Ben, Jason & Keiron linking up well but failed to convert the chances we were creating. Owain, who was playing in midfield, showed his defensive qualities in tracking back to break up Dunbar’s attacks. Scott and Ethan looked quite comfortable in defence and Jamie our goalkeeper was making some great saves. However on one of Dunbar’s rare attacks, we first failed to clear the ball and then with the attacker having loads of time on the right hand side of the box, we then failed to close him down as he fired a shot across Jamie high into the right hand side of the net. It was a great finish from an acute angle, but we should have defended better and denied him the time and space. We continued to go forward and it wasn’t long before we fashioned an equaliser out of nothing. Jason who had picked up a knock early in the game and didn’t appear to be moving that freely, suddenly sprung to life and after collecting the ball outside the box, he showed some great individual skill to create the space to fire a great left foot shot high into keeper’s left hand top corner. This gave us the momentum to go on and quickly score another courtesy of Ben who was continuing to link well with Jason and this time he struck a powerful shot across the goalie to take a 2-1 lead into the first break.

At the beginning of the 2nd period, Jason went in goal, Cameron into middle of midfield and Brendan took over from Scott in defence. Quite quickly Dunbar drew level, this time courtesy of a break down their left, which left their attacker striding towards Jason and from again a very tight angle, they scored with a very precise shot which beat Jason at his near post. It was the power and accuracy of the shot high to Jason’s right hand side which beat him. However, disappointed as we were, it didn’t take long to re-establish our lead with Jamie showing a lot of composure in shielding a pass from Cameron with his body until he was ready to fire a great left foot shot across the keeper into the net. Cameron was bossing midfield and was linking well with Ben on the right and Owain on the left of midfield. Shortly afterwards we extended our lead courtesy of a pass from Ethan into Cameron’s path and his shot from outside the box was too powerful for the keeper to save. We were dominant in the second period as Brendan showed great strength in his defending and Owain always willing to track back and help the defence.

We made more changes at the end of the second period with Ben assuming the role of keeper, Cameron moving to right midfield, Jason to left midfield and Scott going into middle of midfield. We also put Keiron back up front as striker and it wasn’t long before he added another goal to his tally. This time as with Jamie earlier, he shielded the ball from the defence with his body and this allowed him time to set himself for the shot which beat the keeper at his near post. Just when we looked as though we would run away with the game, we were brought back to earth with a bump as Dunbar scored 2 quick goals, one of which was as a result of Ben trying to save a shot with his feet and instead of trapping the ball which he intended, the ball rebounded back into the path of a Dunbar player and his shot ended up in the net. This was simply a consequence of playing someone like Ben in an unfamiliar role. We were undeterred by this and still trying to play football. An example was a great flowing move involving Jason, Cameron and Scott whose pass to Keiron bounced off his foot and was cleared by the defender just as he was lining up his shot on goal. Just before the end of the third period Dunbar cut our lead to one as a result of a well worked team goal.

We have been in this position so many times recently going into the last period either drawing or as in this case only slightly ahead and I can only continue to be amazed by the desire shown by all the boys to go on and win the game. This final period proved to be no exception when Keiron displayed good strength to keep the defender at bay and retain possession, found Ben at the edge of the box and he confidently stroked the ball past the keeper into the net. With Ben now playing in centre midfield he was able to demonstrate the power he possesses by collecting the ball from Jason just inside their half and going on to unleash a ferocious shot from way outside the box which flew into the net. It really was screamer which no keeper would have saved. With Cameron proving to be an inspired keeper after having one of his better games in midfield, his prowess in goal seemed to be the catalyst for the team to play some great football in the last quarter. Apart from the control we had on the game, it was also evident how strong we still were even though most of the boys had played for at least 45 minutes.

The link up play and energy we displayed makes me think that the last quarter is as good as we have played as a team, with everyone making a great contribution, for a very long time if not ever.

Squad: Jamie, Scott, Ethan, Keiron, Jason, Owain, Ben, Brendan & Cameron

Goal scorers: Ben (3), Cameron (2), Keiron, Jason, & Jamie