v stoke

[mcgannd 13]

The guys sent two teams to Stoke on Saturday. The u 18s drew 2-2 whilst the u16s lost 2-0.......... and I was sent off!!!

 

I wandered over to see the u16s whilst the u18 were having half time and on the way back I stayed on the path and ambled past the dugouts and was hugely amused by the referee, assitant referee, fouth official and the Stoke coaches and two players debated who was coming on and who was not coming on, as substitute. The stupidity of it all was fascinating and I stopped to watch the developing fiasco when a steward came along and asked me to move on as I was not allowed to watch the game from there.

 

I'm on private ground and claiming squatters rights seemed unlikely to be successful so I allowed myself to be escorted the 20 yards but still found the intervention unnecessary. I would of course pass on this top secret private infomation to the Russian security services for onward transmission to Roman Abramovich at Chelski.

 

what a load of sperical objects.

 

with a couple of exceptions I had not seen any of the u 18s play before and as they were about half the size of the Stoke guys I feared the worst.

 

after about 20 minutes they backed off the Stoke left winger who cut in and scored with a good low shot from outside the area. One wondered if the floodgates were about to open as we had shown little coherent play to that point. A lovely move then produced a goal and this was followed almost instantly by a header agaist the angle of bar and post with the keeper beaten. Half time 1-1

 

Boro were much better in the second half as the "miget gems" that formed our midfield started to gain control and the passing started to come together when disaster struck as a straightforward text book save resulted in the ball squirming through the goal keepers saving position and trickled into the net. With only about 15 minutes to go, defeat loomed Injury time saw a goal produced from a flowing move and for what I believe is the third year running Boro got their draw in the dying minutes.

 

I refrained form apologisiing to the irate Stokie who provided this gem of information and failed to explain that the game lasts until the referee blows the final whistle. It would clearly have been lost on him

[Powlay 35]

Boro U18 line up Bland, Galpin, Sirrell, Weledji, Bennett, Maloney, Rivers, Boagey, McGlade, Warnett, Garrity

 

Kneeshaw & Waters came on for Warnett & Garrity, Kneeshaw and Sirrell with the goals

[mcgannd 13]

but not necessarily in that order !

 

1. Bland - despite his howler for the goal he dominated his area well and takes a high ball / cross as well as anyone in the club. Even with a big group of bodies he still gets there and gets both hands on the ball

 

2. Bennett - played well as a right back did a reasonable job of keeping a big pacy left winger under control.

 

3 Galpin - another promising left back, narely a foot wrong

 

4. Sirrell - played on the left side of the defensive centrepiece. big enough to cope with the Stoke giants these days. Captain and can play football. Looked very accomplished. Goal came straight from the trianing ground but well executed

 

5. Weledji - a big lad and not a bad player. Looked a bit nervous

 

the defence played well but were reduced to long balls for Adam Garrity in the first half.

 

6 Rivers - He's been round the block a bit but overall had a cracking game helped out those who were struggling by just being there a constant thorn in the side of Stoke's attacking play and still going well at the end

 

11 Warnett - what a talented little footballer. He got a serious clattering from a thuggy right back early doors but managed to get on his feet and give him the run around after that. Very clever lad but tiny. left winger.

Not a great contribution defensively and maybe tired in the second half when instead of pushing on in attack he was inclined to stop to bring others into play

 

Lewis Mahoney - a real baby face if I have the right guy played well but small

 

I have no way of differentiating between Boagey and McGlade one of whom played on the right wing and was responsible for the header that hit the woodwork.

 

9. Adam Garrity played a lone stiker role and he is a big lad and quickish too. Up against a man mountain from Brixton but he did manage to nick the odd header and create space for others

 

12 Kneeshaw - A quick lad who scores a few goals but he is not always positive and looked lost at times but that could be him struggling to get into the game after so long on the bench

 

14. Matthew W ...... big ginger haired lad who made a bit of a contribution when he got on the field but also struggled to get to the pace of the game all the time

 

hope that helps to put the performance into context

 

on the u 16 there was a blondish central defender wearing no 4 who was quick an looked a very good player and a sub wearing 14 who was also tiny in fact I wondered if he had left junior school ( ok I exaggerate but he really was tiny tiny.

 

Stokes no 4 in the same game impressed me as he had enormously long legs but a reading of the game and an extra time on the ball that many of the great players have