Marlborough Rovers U8’s vs Whittington – April 12th
The last game of the season was against the team we played first back in September, when we were unlucky to only draw (Harry’s penalty clearly crossed the line
). We were hoping for a change of fortune today as these two teams battled for third place in the league and we were coming with a 7 game unbeaten run.
We lined up with Kieran in goal, Glenn and Bobby in defence, JT and Jacob in midfield and Harry and Dom upfront. We had an early chance to put some pressure on from a long free kick, but Glenn dragged it wide. Whittington had their own free kick opportunity but it too came to nothing. A Marlborough break down the left gave Dom the chance to unleash a fierce first time effort. Their keeper did very well to get his body behind the ball as it was really travelling.
The play swung to each end, both sides having dangerous corner routines. Whittington were chipping theirs right across the line of the cross bar and any contact could have resulted in a goal. Kieran just managed to fingertip their best effort to safety. Marlborough were using the short corner routine to give shooting opportunities to Dom, Harry and Jacob.
Marlborough then had a good spell of pressure. JT burst through midfield but couldn’t find the target with his shot. Then Glenn picked up the ball just in his own half and set off down the left wing. He beat 3 players to get to the by-line and cut the ball back across the face of the goal. Their keeper, defender and Dom all arrived at the ball at the same time and it bobbled about tantalisingly, inches from the goal line, but we couldn’t quite force it home. We followed this up with a number of shots from distance and looked to be getting the upper hand
.
Whittington’s keeper had a good kick on him and one of his clearances was flicked in to our area. Glenn nicked it away but the ball rebounded to the edge of our box. Bobby and JT tried to clear, but in the temporary confusion a Whittington player nipped in and stabbed the ball into our net. 1 – 0 to Whittington after 12 minutes. Shortly after that Kieran had to race out of goal to clear from a Whittington ball over the top. He connected with the ball beautifully
, but it thudded into the stomach of Whittington’s chasing player. It completely pole-axed the poor lad
and that was the last action of the half.
In the second half the pattern was repeated, both teams having spells of pressure but Marlborough having the best chances with Jacob, JT and Dom all having shots at goal. Lewis came on for Harry and he started to link our attacks more effectively by using shorter more accurate passes. One move down the left brought the ball to Dom and he again unleashed a fabulous drive across the keeper that looked destined for the bottom corner. Their keeper didn’t look very athletic, but he threw himself across the goal to turn it around the post and we were all gobsmacked that we weren’t celebrating a goal
.
We were now really turning the screw, Lewis turned on the ball and whacked a shot at goal from distance but again their keeper held on to it. Matt now threw caution to the wind taking off Bobby from defence and sending on Harry to join attack. Dom was again put through but the keeper beat him to the ball. As the last few minutes approached we had 5 players pressing their box and Glenn and Kieran had to sort out any Whittington attacks between them. We pushed them further and further back but couldn’t force the equalizer despite a number of pinball moments in their box. When the ref blew the whistle you could hear the Whittington supporter’s sighs of relief from the other side of the pitch
.
Final score: Marlborough Rovers 0 Whittington 1
Marlborough Man of the Match: Glenn (awarded by Gary)
Statto says: We finished 5th in the league, W7, D6, L5 with a much better run of results after Christmas. All the lads have shown themselves to be battlers, working hard for each other and no opposition team has found it easy. We were one of only 2 teams to take any points off the champions, the others were the runners up. Dominic was the top scorer with 10 goals.
I’ve really enjoyed watching them this season and can’t wait for it all to start again. Thanks to Matt for all his hard work in coaching the team.
Well done lads!
