Darren Hare delivers his verdict on Academy defeat...
We took the lead slightly against the run of play in the Youth Alliance fixture at Beechings Cross.A well worked move saw Kane Haysman’s shot blocked by a defender only for it to drop to him again to lift over the keeper into the net.
Our best spell in the game came after we scored, where within 10 minutes, we could have doubled our lead after Haysman was brought down by their defender for a stonewall penalty.
The usually composed Frankie Beale stepped up to take but their keeper saved it, only for the linesman to have deemed the keeper had moved off his line prior to the kick so it was to be re-taken.
Now it’s always questionable at this stage as to whether Frankie should have been the taker again, but I let the boys decide and Frankie was brave enough to want to have another go and they all backed him.
Unfortunately for him it was well struck but just wide of the post and the score remained the same, but that situation was well managed by the players and whilst Frankie had a bit of banter from the lads after the game, I think he appreciated their confidence in him at the time.
This moment in the game seemed to galvanise our opponents as they really stepped up to the plate and made it a difficult morning for us going on to win the game by a comfortable scoreline.
I have to say the score didn’t reflect the performance of my players as I felt they worked very hard and had their own good chances but in the end that old saying ‘goals change games’ was definitely ringing true.
The players said afterwards that they weren’t too happy with how they defended at times, and I wouldn’t disagree with that, but there were many positives to take from the game also.
Team: O’Neill (Vincent 75), Staunton (Emptage 40), Beale (Sellens 65) , Freiter, Lee, Maughan, Webster, Coates, Haysman, Miller, Blanchard.