Under 12's. Away v Brendon Bees
(Challenge Cup Round 1)
Result - Reddish North End 5 Brendon Bees 1
Another excellent win for the boys today, who were genuinely impressive for a good portion of this cup match. This was our sixth game against the Bees in the last couple of seasons but its the first time we have beaten them. We should have won our league match here in December but lost out due to some poor defending and missing a hatful of chances, so in making amends today we got a monkey off our backs.
All our previous games against the Bees have been close affairs so to win by such a margin was not something I was expecting. Indeed, after a poor start from us I expected to see our net bulging the Bees had all the early play, they hit the bar and whizzed another shot just wide, and we looked off the pace and a bit shapeless. However, our re-jigged line-up, with Louis being given a trial on the right and Felix in midfield started to make an impression after those early escapes, Sam almost breaking the bar in two with a powerful shot. Soon a through ball saw Jamie sprint away and smack home a great finish for 1-0. From that point the confidence started to flow and Sam had soon powered home a second, before the ref spotted a clear handball as we attacked again there were no complaints from anyone and Sam swept home the penalty for 3-0 at the interval.
Swapping the side around again, I told them to focus, get behind the ball and not concede anything early, which is exactly what they did. With Callum looking lively we were soon camped in Bees territory and Jamie, sensing a chance, popped up to squeeze home a loose ball, which he does so well and is why hes such a valuable player to the side. Shortly afterwards came the goal of the match, Sam twisting and turning before curling home a lovely shot into the far corner for a well-deserved hat-trick.
By this point the game was obviously over and the atmosphere was a bit flat, not much talking on the pitch from either side. I was more than a little vexed by the boys apparently deciding they would change from our usual 3-5-2 formation to 3-0-7! The midfielders got a rocket from the touchline as we started coming under pressure from the pacy Bees forwards. We gave them too much easy possession in the last 10 minutes and when a Bees player slotted home a loose ball from a corner a good finish, incidentally it was no surprise. It would have been nice to keep a clean sheet but all that really matters is scoring more than we concede and we did that by some distance today.
It was a real treat to play on such a good pitch with proper size goals it was flat, dry and even, absolutely superb and once we adjusted to the quicker pace of the ball we were very good value for the win overall. This was the sixth time weve scored five goals away from home this season 40 in total on our travels with one more trip to Ashton in the league to come which is absolutely terrific and something all the boys can be pleased with.
I made lots of substitutions today and everyone coped well, with all the boys having lots to take from their own performances. Jamie had been unwell for a lot of the week, Mark only arrived back from holiday abroad at 6.30am, and with a trialist playing and some boys in unfamiliar positions it was a highly creditable effort by all of them to get us through to the next round of this competition. The A division sides are also involved in the Challenge Cup so we will likely be up against one of them next.
Next week its back to the League and back to North Reddish Park for our first home match since November 22nd(!) when Ashton are the visitors.
Scorers : Sam (3) Jamie (2)
Man of the match : Sam
