Tadcaster Albion (Black) U21s 6 Frickley U21s 4
After a disappointing first half, the Young Azzurri battled back in the second but couldn’t quite complete the comeback in this 10-goal thriller against a very technical Taddy side.
The Baby-faced Blues started brightly with Paul Sherburn putting an early sighter inches wide from the edge of the box. Then on 9 minutes Sherbs made it 1-0 with a neat finish into the bottom right corner from 15 yards.
Frickley’s fledglings were looking the better side until the 22nd minute when Taddy had a purple patch and hit an amazing 4 goals in the space of 8 minutes. It wasn’t quite one-way traffic, Sherbs grazed the outside of the post with a shot, but Taddy blew the Young Azzurri away even more effectively than the bitter, swirling wind for a few minutes there.
Shell-shocked, the Young Blues steadied the ship a little before Taddy scored a fifth from an outrageous volley/lob on the stroke of half time.
The introduction of Kyle Simpson after the break had an immediate impact as, within seconds of the restart, he set up Harry Brown to fire over the bar.
Taddy’s sixth came in the 51st minute but for the rest of the half you could have been forgiven for mistaking which side was five goals up as the Blues took control of the game.
It was 6-2 in the 58th minute when the Taddy keeper dropped a high ball under pressure and Ardian Gashi drilled the loose ball home.
Seven minutes later, the arrears were reduced further. A free kick into the six yard box was spilled by the keeper and Will Sutton reacted first, crashing the ball into the net.
Despite the Budding Blues being very much on top and creating several chances, it was over 20 minutes before the next goal came. Kyle Simpson challenged the keeper on the edge of the area who could only clear the ball to Sherbs. 20 yards out, Sherbs kept his nerve and passed the ball into the empty net to make it 6-4.
Taddy managed to see out the last few nervy minutes to take the win but our Young Boys in Blue had given them a second half scare.
All in all, the first half was one to forget for the Young Azzurri but in winning the second half 3-1 they showed the sort of spirit we’ve come to expect of them. Whatever boss Casey O’Reilly said over the half time oranges worked!
Regardless of the result, it was a great watch for the neutral.
Standouts for Taddy were the rangy defensive midfielder Chris Rahming and the two pacey widemen, Lincoln Augenstein and Noah Fuson. For The Blues, Strictly Sherbs, Ardian Gashi and Will Sutton were constantly driving the side forward. And Kyle Simpson’s second half display was instrumental in the recovery, relentlessly buzzing around and forcing the defence into mistakes.
Weather permitting, the Next Gen Blues are next in action next Wednesday at The Wezzie with Silsden U21s the visitors, 7.45pm kickoff. You’d be mad to miss it….
