NW phantoms 1 v 0 hook youth. (Ted)
This was always going to be a special occasion, playing hook youth. I'm sure there was plenty of complex technical football debates at school before this game between the two sets of players..
Pitch and RMS looked lovely as we were once again basking in the sunshine. No JF this week and a last minute decision for TH to play, having been unwell...
The message beforehand was get the ball on the deck and use the width of the pitch, on a nice passing surface. . The maturity of our football was a delight, switching play, bouncing the ball backwards to start again, maintaining width in our play and at a good tempo. A rocket from the edge of the box gave phantoms a deserved lead which was almost two when pressure was put on the youth defence, ON then nicking the ball off the fullback and forcing a superb save from the Youth keeper. There was one move in that first half that went from midfield, back to defence, to midfield, spilt the defence that would have been goal of season.
Youth main attacks came from the long throws to gain territory and corners and create panic in our defence. However the Phantoms were more decisive and reduced the errors that can haunt us.
Only 1-0 up at half time and we knew that Youth would come at us in the second half. Youth to their credit, have a great knack of getting points. Second half youth pushed up more players, leaving them vulnerable in defence but more dangerous in attack. A more ruthless team may have picked off youth on the counter as we had 3-4 chances to breakaway. The last 10-15 mins we were under the cosh. It wasn't pretty, Youth had no defenders as they swamped midfield and attack.
Man of match was jointly given to ON and EHE. There were however so many excellent performances.
