Date	Sunday 1st December
Match	comberton Crusaders v Royston Town Youth
Competition	Cambridge & District Colts Leage U16 Division A
Result	Won 0-5
Royston Scorers	Sam 2, Bradley, Rhys, AJ

We made the short trip to little Eversden to play Comberton in our final league cup group match knowing a draw would be enough to send us through to the quarter final stage. Once again a perfect day for football with no wind and a perfect pitch.

 

The result last week we hoped would give the boys the confidence to put in another strong performance; we would switch back to a more orthodox line up which meant a couple of changes which might seem a little harsh on those who did not start but as I have said on more than one occasion this is about the squad and no one individual. We needed to show the same focus and concentration as last week and the willingness to do the dirty work because as we already new from our game three weeks ago Comberton are a competitive team and you have to fight for everything. They had worked hard at training this week and we wanted them to take some of those learning’s and react in a positive way.

 

Both teams started with plenty of enthusiasm but passes were going astray and the game was played mostly in midfield and when the ball got into the final third both defences looked comfortable. We were passing the ball really well but just could not get the final ball right or in some cases making the wrong decision.Comberton put one move together down there right which ended with a cross into our box there forward had a free header but put it wide. This sparked us into life and the midfield four started to get on top and the movement of the front two were causing them problems and you could sense a goal was coming. On 35 minutes we did get that all important first goal, James R put in a great delivery Rhys got the faintest of touches and Bradley who had made a great run hit a shot which gave there keeper no chance. We saw the half out but did pick up a booking when the ref booked callum for kicking the ball away before he brought the half to an end.

 

Some of the football we played that last fifteen minutes was excellent it was only our final pass or decision making that was letting us down, we needed to start strongly from the re start and show some quality in that final third, our second half performance in the league game had let us down so we had to make sure there was no repeat, AJ would come on for he hard working Fred just to freshen things up.

 

We did start off where we had left off and were looking sharp and hungry, all over the pitch we were starting to dominate possession but needed to turn that into goals. On 63 minutes we got that all important goal when AJ played a ball for Sam to run onto he had too much pace for his marker and as the keeper came out Sam lifted the ball over him and into the back of the net. This goal really lifted us and our passing and movement was there for all to see and we soon scored number three when Bradley played a pass into Sam his shot deflected to Rhys and he made no mistake. The fourth followed almost straight away this time Jack O and James B played some neat football down our left James B shot and when the keeper pushed it out there was Sam to react first and score into an empty net. Our fifth and last goal came with five minutes remaining once again good work down our left from James B ended with a cross into the box Ross made a great challenge winning a header and as the ball fell into AJ’S path he made no mistake scoring his first goal of the season from eight yards. This was the last real piece of goalmouth action as we run out 5-0 winners and booked our place into the quarter final after winning our group with three wins out of three.

 

We needed to follow up last weeks performance and did just that, I have to say that second half performance was excellent our first and second movement was really bright and the football at times was of a real high quality, we are now looking like the side we all new we could but we cant just be satisfied we have to continue to improve and work hard.

 

Special mention to Ross this week who has not played any where near the amount of time on the pitch he would like but over the last two weeks has doubled his efforts at training listened to what we have said and today when he got his chance showed us all the improvement in his play that will enable him to feature more regularly.