U18 Match Report - round 12

U18 Eastern Lions vs Doncaster Rovers 24th July, 2011

On a wet and cool morning we lined up to face the top dogs Eastern Lions. We had an almost full squad with Aaron in goal, then Gareth ,Nima and Steve down back with Loch sweeping. In midfield was Alex and Xavier then Drew and Tom with Ricky with Anthony forward. On the pine were Jani, Mitch, Sammy, Heng, Aiden and Michael.
The game started out with Rovers soon pressing but Anthony shot at the moon. We kept peppering the goals to no avail. Ricky shot wide, Tom shot wide then Ricky clipped a stray ball almost through the keeper, only trapped by his legs at the last instant. Then Xavier cracked a kick out straight back at the keeper that just clipped the keepers toe and veered out. So close and yet so far! After a penalty to Rovers for a foul on Ricky, Ricky took the shot but “dead eye dick “ went way too high. Lucky I don’t bet because I was ready to put the house on that one!! As usual after we had the play for 20 minutes The Lions rushed forward and their No9 got around our defender and shot truly.
Not to be denied Xavier picked up a loose ball and cracked at goal, their defender deflected the ball nicely into the net. Game on!
Rovers were still controlling most of the high class game but the Lions looked dangerous when close to goal. Aaron pulled off a fantastic save to keep Rovers in the game
Rovers had 3 corners in a row but just could not break through. Finally Ricky was pulled down in the box and this time Alex S took the penalty and shot truly to give Rovers a well deserved break leading up to half-time.

Half-time score: Eastern Lions 1 : Doncaster Rovers 2

The rain had stopped and the game just kept improving with good passing, strong defence by all our backs, and excellent teamwork by both sides. Steve, Nim & Gareth were standing up well along with Loch who headed and kicked us out of danger on many occasions. Xavier and Alex were controlling the midfield and putting the ball to advantage, Drew was clinical in slicing open the defence with deft passes to the open side and Tom put on a lot of forward pressure. Ricky and Anthony really kept the Lions defence under pressure at all times. The Lions were attacking but No 9 was too quick even for the linesman and was caught offside on several occasions. Rovers still were teaming that bit better and taking more shots on goal as well as several corners but we just could not find the net. Alex took a penalty from 25 metres and almost goaled as their keeper just flicked the ball wide.
The lions lifted their intensity and after several near misses and saves Aaron brought down No9 and a penalty resulted. In some form of blind justice he hit the crossbar and the ball rebounded out to Rovers advantage.
The Lions kept pressing and No9, or should I call him “Love Potion”, had about 3 really strong cracks at goal that Aaron saved by some miraculous feats. At one stage Lions hit the side post at the same time as Aaron and a sore arm was worth it! Supporters of both sides were clapping Aaron for his fearless saves. It was good to be in amongst true supporters of the game no matter who was winning.
The ball was travelling end to end with good contests all over the ground. Each team had good opportunities to score but they were denied by the shut down pressure of the defences. Finally Anthony was brought down outside the box and Alex took the free that lobbed just within reach of the keeper but he could only just let the ball slide over his hand into the waiting head of Ricky who was lurking just behind the keeper and Rovers score skipped away to a match winning lead. Sammy and Jani came on to keep the ball flowing towards Rovers goal as the final whistle sounded.
Both teams put in a strong performance in what was the game of the year so far.
The Ref who had done a good job and controlled the testosterone levels of the boys for all of the game blew the whistle to end the game. All players could be satisfied with their individual efforts and team performance.

Full-time score: Eastern Lions 1 : Doncaster Rovers 3

ROVERS –a classy team win that puts us back in the frame for a shot at the premiership If we can continue to play at this level the team will continue to succeed.