Youth League Boys U16
MR United 3 d Cornerstone 2
THE United lads, obviously enjoying their weekly newspaper write-ups and working hard to create impressive play that can be described with adjectives as good as those used by the Storm’s erudite reporter, this week took out their third win in almost as many games.
Competing against Cornerstone, who were determined to preserve their fourth position on the ladder, .United were asked to play to position, use the width of the ground, and get their heads up to pass intelligently–in short, to play good, possession football.
For all but about 15 minutes at the end of the first half, they did this to perfection, and got the win as a result.
The game started evenly with some strong forward advances from United.
Victor Cunningham was challenging everything that came his way, taking the ball to his chest and controlling it.
Sam Connell was all over the wing, using his speed to huge advantage with long runs that continually opened up opportunities for the forwards.
Some solid work in defence from Tom Wood and Mat Kevill saw the ball delivered to Nic Versteegen, who sent it forward for Victor to run onto for a neatly placed goal.
Cornerstone looked like scoring, and a solid strike was only prevented from going in by Phil Williams’ head being in the right place.
Moments later, Phil repeated the move with another great header save, though this time intentional.
Goalkeeper Trevor Armener, calm under pressure, repelled multiple attacks, and pulled off a stunning one-handed save, backed up by Tom knocking it out of the box, that had the crowd going wild.
United once again benefited from poor goal-kicking by the opposition, with several excellent opportunities remaining unconverted.
Sacha Rudd, Bevan Elson and Dan Raymond were showing great commitment in the back line, and Glen Giles, the Chooks Player of the Match, was playing intelligent football up the front, keeping his head up and switching the play.
Cornerstone opened their account with a goal that had everyone confused.
Trevor took a great save, which was followed by a bit of a scuffle on the line and the ball was in, though nobody was quite sure who, or which team, did the deed.
Thus we went into half time at 1-all.
The boys came into the second half with a much tighter brand of football, retaining possession and looking like a winning team.
Stand-in coach Cam Wood remarked, “They’re actually playing football”.
Nic capitalised on a ball that came loose from a free kick, taking it around to the side and sending in a piercing strike that was saved, then fumbled, by the keeper for our second goal.
Victor shortly afterwards had two shots on goal and was unfortunate not to score. Henry Rogers was all desperation in the forward line, running into space before running off the ground and disappearing without a trace to play for his other (U14s) team.
With the wind working to our advantage, United peppered the goals.
Victor had yet another shot, which went to the keeper and was fumbled; Nic seized the moment and sent the ball to the back of the net for 3-1.
Cornerstone upped the ante with a great cross into the box that was converted with a header.
Trevor was playing an aggressive and proactive brand of goalkeeping which often saw him a long way out of the box.
The supporters couldn’t believe his save caught on the full while sprinting backwards towards the goals, with Trevor plucking the ball out of mid-air as it hurtled towards the open goal.
Tom and Mat did a dual slide-tackle manouevre to save another goal, and Phil was continually in the way of the Cornerstone attackers.
Gilesy took a great corner that looked like curling in, but it was not converted and the game, which once again was exciting from kick-off to final whistle, finished up at 3-2.
It was a well deserved win, and well umpired, once again, by Paul Brown.
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