Football: Junior round-up
JUNIOR football round-up.
Greetland Goldstars U-13 3
Todmorden Borough U-13 9
Greetland may have pressed Boro all the way last season in their title winning season but were well beaten in this fixture on a heavily sloping pitch.
Boro got off to a slow start playing down the hill and found the pitch difficult to acclimatise to with passes being over-hit and forwards getting caught offside.
They also found themselves defending more than they would have liked but Thomas Suthers, Alfie Farrington , Jonah Douglas Byrne and Cameron Sutcliffe protected keeper Joe Battersby well.
Talisman Lewis Schofield inevitably broke the deadlock when he crashed a shot into the top corner from long range. Greetland grabbed an early equaliser but the Boro midfielders – Lewis Schofield, Thomas Heys, Lewis Wild, Jake Barnes and Alex Werth – gradually increased their domination of the game and goals seemed inevitable despite some heroic efforts from the home keeper.
Late in the half the pressure paid off as Jacob Dobson grabbed a brace and Lewis Schofield claimed a second from a deflected corner.
Coach Kevin Heys made some tactical changes at half time in anticipation of a bombardment down the slope. However, with man of the match Farrington and Byrne in central defence swallowing up the majority of long balls, the concerns proved to be unfounded.
George Hodkinson replaced Thomas Suthers in defence whilst the midfield and strikers were rotated at regular intervals.
Instead the supporters were treated to some entertaining passing football that tore the Greetland defence apart.
Tommy Few grabbed a hat trick and Jonathan Fitzgerald a further two to give Boro a most emphatic victory. Greetland may have been outplayed but they did not give up, scoring two consolation goals and also forcing a couple of good saves from Joe.
The quality of the Boro goals was high with some excellent interchanges in particular involving Jake and Alex creating opportunities for the forwards.
Himmat U-11 0
Todmorden Sports Centre U-11 10
Poor Himmat, bottom of the league and without a win all season, had only nine men against a resurgent Todmorden.
Still, they managed to keep the visitors at bay for almost 10 minutes before the inevitable avalanche came. Henry Antemes raced clear to fire home and did the same again just two minutes later.
Although they added another player to their team, Himmat struggled to break out of their own half and Todmorden added three more before half-time, from Benji Simms and Alec Hodkinson (two).
With the game as good as won, manager Lee Pearson experimented, trying players in different positions. Christopher Reeder was busy in midfield and Conor Shapland, moving up from the back, was strong in the tackle.
Josh Dyer scored two with fine shots and Benjamin Pearson completed a second half hat-trick, each of his goals showing a striker's predatory instinct around the six-yard box.
Todmorden Sports Centre U-9 0
Hebden Bridge Penguins U-9 0
IT may have finished in stalemate, but this local clash was far from dull.
In fact the game had everything bar goals – great end-to-end football and always on a knife-edge.
Hebden probably shaded the first half with a succession of corners that caused Todmorden problems. Indeed when Luis Diggle threw himself to the floor to make a point-blank save it kept the home side in the game.
However, they were equally dangerous at the other end, Ben England dribbling into the box before Louis Journeaux curled a shot agonisingly wide.
Todmorden were arguably the dominant side after the break.
At the back, Barney Sheehan and Jude Spensley tackled everything ably supported by the solid Jordan Rothwell and industrious Joel Deakin.
On attack the craft of Oisin Pritchard and Leon Borrill and the running and positional play of Ben Cook and Dylan Caldwell certainly had the Penguins flapping.
But, despite carving out some good opportunities, Todmorden just didn't get that little bit of luck that could have won the contest. With
goal attempts by both sides in the dying minutes it really could have gone either way.
Huddersfield Amateurs U-7 2
Todmorden Sports Centre U-7 10
TSC took advantage of a break in league fixtures to hand out a comprehensive beating of Huddersfield Amateurs at Elland Old Earth.
Despite the eleventh-hour withdrawals of both Max Goldie and Alfie Connors, the visitors produced a fine all-round team performance on a muddy pitch.
Midfielder Harvey Lucaszyk was in sparkling form and put TSC in front in the opening minute with a low drive before setting up Jacob Entwistle to roll home a second five minutes later.
With Luke Henson dominant at the back and Max Dawson and Reece McDermondy controlling the game in midfield, the visitors were in total control and Ben Ormerod danced over the sticky pitch to score twice in as many minutes.
The home team pulled one back but TSC then struck twice more before the interval with Lucaszyk and Ormerod again finding the target.
The home team enjoyed their best spell straight after the restart and added a second but that served only to inspire TSC who dominated thereafter.
Entwistle notched his second when finishing smartly after chasing down a goal-kick, Ormerod scored twice more, and Diarmuid Pritchard scored the best goal of the match with a fine left-footed finish after a mazy run to put the seal on a terrific win.
Todmorden Sports U-8 2
H Bridge Scorpions U-8 1
TSC got back to winning ways against a tough HB Scorpions side.
Bragg in goal was in fine form while Kelly and Brackstone were rock-like at the back and the midfield of Emery, Sorrell, Eatherall and man-of-the-match, Thompson, were outstanding, covering every blade of artificial pitch.
Up front Law and Jones caused the Scorpions endless problems.
But the home side found themselves behind after only two minutes but TSC recovered well and applied themselves to finding the equaliser.
Their efforts bore fruit after 15 minutes when good work by Law led to Jones scoring.
Things got even better three minutes after the break, when Sorrell put them ahead with a well taken goal.The two sides then traded attacks for the remainder of the match without adding to the score.
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Friday 10 February 2012
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