U14 Boys v Saffron Walden – U14 League Tier 1B
2-3 (Ossie Bannister x 2)
On a very cold day, the third meeting of the season between these two sides produced yet another very close and exciting game, which was only lost by conceding from an overtime PC which unluckily crept over the line.
It was a very even game in which both sides had chances and to be fair, a draw would have been a just result. BS started slowly, lacking the intensity of their previous game, and struggling to link passes together because of too slow movement of the ball and weak leading allowing their opponents to intercept. Individual defending was not as good as usual and although Thomas made a couple of good saves to keep SW from scoring, eventually confusion on our right allowed a SW player to run easily into the circle and slip the ball home for the opening goal. However, this seemed to cause BS to wake up a little and Alec on the right was being very creative and setting up good attacks. It was not long before BS equalised when Ossie received the ball in the circle and spun his defender to slide the ball under the GK.
At the start of the second half, BS started to create more positional pressure. Tate and William in the middle were winning the ball well and passing creatively and Manny and Edward in the central defence were tackling and distributing effectively. Another right side attack set up Ossie who calmly controlled the ball and slid it past the GK for the lead but unfortunately the PC defence did not deal with the initial rebound from a PC strike and SW equalised. Ossie got through on a break only to be fouled just before he could shoot and the GK made a good save from the resulting PC. In the end BS suffered for a number of failures to clear their circle to the sides of the pitch and an error, just as the final whistle went, meant SW had an overtime PC. A mis-hit shot was somehow deflected past the GK and the BS team suffered a cruel finish to the game as they were well worth a draw in the game
Going forward, there is much promise in the way the team can attack with real purpose and score goals with skilful offensive play. Several of the players are also learning the art of effective individual defence. The key development areas are the security of some of the passing, coupled with stronger leading and for more of the players to get lower in their personal defending. I am sure they will do this and we all look forward to the nextLeague game in a weeks time
Report by Charlie Bannister
U16 Girls v Saffron Walden
4-2 ( Olivia Brierly, Issy Parker x3)
A hat-trick from Issy Parker, with her brothers borrowed stick, and one for Olivia Brierly secured the win against Saffron Walden.
2-1 up at half time, Issy scoring the opening goal from open play before Olivia made it two from a cracking short corner strike.
Walden got themselves back into the game early in the second half, an equaliser coming from a short corner. From then on it was all Stortford, Issy getting a lovely deflection, from a pass from Kess Levy, to make it 3-2, before securing her hat-trick with a fantastic strike from the top of the ‘d’. Final score 4-2
