RIASA Leeds 2
Young Azzurri 3
Our youngsters turned in another impressive performance as they returned from Leeds with a well deserved 3 points – the squad included 3 16 year old debutants, Joe Wilson & Lucas Brown from our U-16’s & Sam Orman.
The visitors started the brightest with Bailey Cowsell, Matty Hughes & George Blaydes (who was making his full debut) all going close to opening the scoring. Our midfield was running things with Josh Hague, Harry Alexander & skipper Mason Kilmartin winning their battles and driving their team forward.
But the home side to their credit hung in there and started to get a foothold in the game and just before halftime scored with their first shot on goal with a decent strike from the edge of the box.
We had certainly gone off the boil towards the end of the first half, so a good second half was required to get back in the game.
Matty Hughes continued to be a constant threat and 10 mins into the 2nd half he cut inside from the left and struck a thunderous right foot shot which struck the inside of far post but thankfully the rebound fell to Bailey Cowsell who gleefully struck the rebound home to equalise – game on now!
It didn’t take long for us to take the lead when the impressive Harry Alexander fed Bailey Cowsell who skillfully waltzed past his marker to cooly slot the ball home past the advancing keeper.- BC has got the moves like Jagger!!
Young Joe Cooney was showing some lovely touches in midfield and was unfortunate not to score when he hit the inside of the woodwork from a Matty Hughes cross.
The come back was complete when the dangerous duo of Bailey & Matty combined again when a clever free kick routine saw Matty Hughes fire another thunder bolt that this time found the back off the net a wonder strike !!!
Joe Wilson, Lucas Brown & Sam Orman all came on midway through the 2nd half & looked more than comfortable for young lads making their debuts at the U23’s level – massive credit to JP
An unfortunate mix up in defence led to the home side scoring a second goal in the final 10 mins which resulted in the scoreline being closer than a second half dominant performance deserved from the young Azzurri
.
The only downside to another good team performance was an injury to veteran (!!) Callum Beaumont who was forced off in the 1st half with a twisted knee, defenders Ryan Clements & Will Harling did more than enough to compensate the loss along with the Bob Smith MOTM Joshua Smith who was awarded his 2nd consecutive MOTM award in his second full start for the team – a quite remarkable achievement from someone who is 16 years old, well done Josh mate !
