Date	Sunday 4th November 2012
Match	Plantation Youth v Royston Town Youth Colts
Competition	Cambridge & District Colts League U13 Division A
Result	Won 1-5
Royston Scorers	Tom T, Jordan, Adam, Callum, Mick
Man of Match	Olly – Absolutely superb from whistle to whistle.

 Following on from two resounding 11-0 wins we travelled to Saffron Walden to play Plantation Youth Greens on a miserable, wet and cold morning. The Friends School pitch was in good condition considering the rainfall and this game was never in danger of being called off.

 

We got a solid warm-up in and the boys looked concentrated and determined to keep their good run going. We started with the same line-up that had finished the game so well last week and the ref got the game going in the cold driving rain.

 

It took the boys a few minutes to settle as Plantation battled well to close us down and the Colts scrabbled and competed well all over the pitch and always kept trying to get the passing going. I never made many notes during this match but the boys had the better early chances in the first fifteen minutes but sometimes seemed a bit hesitant to pull the trigger in front of goal. The Plantation keeper made some decent stops early on and it took us until the 19^th minute to break the deadlock. Jordan was making some good runs up the right-wing and this time he got right to the by-line, pulling back an excellent mid goal cross that Tommy T arrived at perfectly to tap home. 0-1. The second goal came also from the Jordan route when he sent in a fierce low cross/shot that the home team defender could only deflect into his own net. 0-2. Just before half-time Adam made it three pouncing on a half saved shot from Keiran and slotted home confidently. 0-3.

 

The defence and midfield had played their part in this three goal lead. Jonah, Tommy and Joe at full back had got hold of their players early and securely and were not allowing them any time to settle and Kyle and Olly were looking calm and assured in the middle. Callum, Jake and Adam were doing the hard break up and link work in midfield allowing Jordan, Lewis and Tommy to push on to support Mick and Keiran upfront. The break was short so they didn’t get cold and they went out again.

 

Early in the half a penalty was awarded to Plantation that looked extremely harsh – what looked like a well timed and good tackle by Kyle was adjudged a foul and despite a great effort by George to keep it out low to his left Plantation got one back. 1-3. The boys shrugged this off well and got back to keeping the action mainly at the other end and their consistent pressure won a few corners and from one of these they got a deserved fourth goal. Mick sent a corner over deep that Tommy controlled well and drove back low into the danger area where Callum reacted quickest and prodded it in. 1-4. In the worsening weather conditions it could be seen that players from both sides were thoroughly frozen and from within our snug jackets we asked for one last effort. This came with a good team move that moved the ball quickly seeing Mick pick it up on the edge of the penalty box take two strides and shot well across the keeper for the Colt’s fifth. 1-5. The referee than kfully blew the whistle just after the restart.

 

As mentioned earlier (twice) the weather was horrible and both teams kept going well and we believe this performance from the boys was just as good as the previous two weeks as conditions like this can level matches and bring in factors other than football to allow points to be dropped.

 

This was again a very pleasing team/squad effort that secured all three points to see the Colts go top of the league. We must give a special mention for the fantastic Olly who without doubt had a great game. He was strong, clinical and determined in his tackling and clever and dangerous coming forward to support the attacks.

 

Brilliant performance by everyone in tough weather conditions – great effort.

 

P7 W6 L1 F47 A5