A cold and blustery Saturday saw the Under 8’s play Tockwith in an eagerly awaited match. The sides had been evenly matched earlier in the season and it was anticipated that this would be another close game.
The first match saw Scotton start positively with some determined runs by Sam H and Jonny H from the midfield putting the home defence under pressure. The team gradually started to control possession and some good interplay involving Jacob K could have resulted in the opening goal but a brave save from the Tockwith keeper kept the score at 0-0. The opposition looked dangerous on the break and we needed to rely on some smart defending from Ennis M to ensure that we didn’t go behind. A couple of shots from the Tockwith forwards were easily dealt with by Jacob C in goal. Scotton continued to dominate the possession and flowed forward at every opportunity only to find that they were continually thwarted by great keeping and brave defending from Tockwith. The pressure could have easily lead to Scotton being a couple of goals up by half time but it was not to be and the game remained goalless at half time.
The second half carried on in the same vein. Jonny H had a shot saved, Sam H had a couple of chances and Antony S could have had a goal. On one occasion, they were four boys all trying to score in a goal mouth scramble only for Tockwith to clear the ball to safety.
As the match drew to a close it looked as though it was likely to be a 0-0 draw until a cracking shot from a Tockwith player flew past Jacob to give the hosts a 1-0 lead. From the restart Scotton tried to find an equaliser but, despite several good chances, Tockwith held on to win 1-0.
The second match followed a similar pattern with the Scotton boys working hard to win possession and they tried to dominate but, on occasions, the final pass went astray. Shots were deflected for corners on many occasions. From one of these corners, Tockwith broke quickly and moved the ball the length of the field and one of their players finished well to put them 1-0 again.
Yet again the boys battled straight from the restart. Callum H was having some success on the left wing and looked like creating the equaliser. Ben R played an excellent ball across the box to Jonny H whose shot was, yet again, blocked by the Tockwith defence. Half time:1-0
The second half saw some big improvements – passes started to go to feet and the boys started to talk to each other. Freddie D looked dangerous on the right and the pressure continued to build on the Tockwith defence. Finally after some good work by the midfield, Jacob K finished with aplomb to get the score back to 1-1.
Ennis and Tom J were doing well at the back and when they won possession they used it well, releasing Sam H and Callum on several occasions. Antony S nearly scored again after a powerful run from the half way line and Tockwith survived another goal line scramble. With time running out it looked like we would have to settle for draw until Jacob K scored a second after a neat move involving four of the team. Some interesting goal celebrations were then shown by the boys.
Final Score: 2-1 to Scotton!
It was pleasing to see the way that the boys battled for each other in both matches and, if we had been a bit better at finishing there could have been more goals – maybe that will be part of the next training session! The ‘Player of the Day’ top was awarded to Antony S for his determined tackling, his energy and his box to box running.
