Frickley U23’s 2
RIASA Helsinki U23s 1
The Young Blues have been in a rich vein of form recently – could they continue that form into this fixture against RIASA Helsinki (who aren’t from Finland BTW….)
Well yes they could for the most part – a scintillating first half saw us 2 nil up, playing some beautiful football – some of the long range passing out of defence was reminiscent of peak 1970s Brazil. Maybe they took their feet off the gas a little on the 2nd half – we’ll allow them that after the quality they’ve given us recently – but we were never in any danger of not taking all 3 points.
Martin & his boot room had to make a few changes but you wouldn’t have known that it wasn’t a team of seasoned regulars
Our third consecutive home game & we were looking to keep our recent mini unbeaten run going, with probably the youngest squad fielded this season. Credit must go to the Frickley Academy set up & coaches involved as 13 players were all U17’s and had represented sides from the youth set up at Westfield Lane this season (for context, the mighty Ken Whitehead was wearing his 2nd newest cummerbund last night – with it being a Thursday – & it is still older than most of last nights squad…..)
The first half was certainly a showcase for their talents, on a firm uneven pitch they played some lovely football that pinned the opposition back. They deservedly took the lead in the opening 5 minutes when the talented Tom Cotson went all Roberto Carlos & superbly fed the in form Harry McCudden who didn’t have to break stride to confidently strike the ball past the on rushing visiting keeper (note from the award winning Media Team – keep an eye on McCudden, the boy sure can play)
We quickly doubled our advantage with a lovely flowing move down the left hand side involving Tyler Sheard & Joe Wilson who played in full back Wilfey Woodham who in turn fed Joe Cooney to again coolly slot the ball past the advancing goalkeeper – another lovely 1st time finish made to look easy with the quality of the pass.
Frickley were dominant now & should really have gone into half time 3 up but somehow Joe Wilsons close range shot was cleared for a corner when a goal looked like the only outcome.
2nd half saw the introduction of debutants Lucas Brown, Sam Yates, Spencer Moses & Ashton Johnson (always good to have a Johnson involved) & all performed really well showing the future can only be bright for these academy youngsters (another note from the award winning Media Team – we’ve seen Sam Yates play for 3 different age groups now – a veritable Billy Whitehurst for the 21st Century – no backing out of challenges for Yatesy!)
The home side were not as fluent now but they were still knocking on the door with hard working George Blaydes creating several good chances for McCudden & Johnson.
Late on we were looking to seal all 3 points. Joe Wilson skillfully cut inside from the left to fire a right footed shot towards the far top corner but this was superbly saved by the visiting keeper.
Young defenders Ben Jennings & James Nicklin were well marshalled by veteran Ryan Clements who unfortunately conceded a late free kick on the edge of the box, which was headed home as the game entered stoppage time. The goal was unfortunate for home GK Dylan Sefton whose handling & kicking had been spot on all evening and Safehands was looking like keeping his 2nd consecutive clean sheet after his MOTM performance for our 1st team at the weekend.
The Young Azzurri managed to negotiate the final 3 or 4 minutes of extra time to hold on to another great 3 home points – the defensive unit were ‘on point’ from start to finish
The Bob Smith MOTM went to Dylan Sefton whose commanding performance capped off a great week for the super talented young stopper. Well done Dylan mate 👏
We are on our travels next Monday 14th April as we play Yorkshire Ams away 7.45pm kick off – so if you fancy a bit of footy on a school night you know where to go
