*PFC U16 Sun 2-2 Uppermill FC* A nightmare scenario an hour before KO today with our 2nd stand in keeper falling foul of illness. With Harrison ??out with a back injury, 3 registered keepers all unavailable, the call that Luke was also out was a huge blow??????? We had a shuffle of the pack, a few lads to play out of position and Luca stepped up to cover in net ???? We knew that there would need to be an extra level of protection of our goal given the circumstances, but in the exchanges a couple of early touches and a positive clearance settled the nerves. We started really well with high energy and a determination to win possession. Our midfield three of Dan, Pete and Dayne set about breaking up Uppermill central threat and they looked to work the ball wide to Salvidor and Zak at every opportunity. Salvidor in particular found time and space to use those dancing feet to break into the box. His crosses couldn’t hit a target the relief of the Uppermill defence. We asked Eesa playing up front to drop deeper to support the midfield and he was causing havoc for the Uppermill defence. On 15 minutes the ball with the ball out on the left, the marauding Max at left back played the ball forward to Salvidor, he worked the ball inside to Dayne who continued the switch of play laying the ball off for Leon who made a great run from right back timed the run perfectly to hit one of the cleanest strikes of a ball you’ll see which flew past the keeper ?? 1-0. Uppermill came back strong, their two target forwards were both looking to play off the shoulders of Harrison B and Tayub and making some good runs. With attempts to thread diagonal balls across us both centre halves played really well snuffing out the threat. Luca was also playing his part in racing out collect any long balls. Zak was making good runs on the right being threaded by Leon. On 31 minutes Eesa found the ball at his feet deep in a central pocket, he turned and drove towards the box and was hauled down inside the box. The ref made the wrong call and placed the ball just outside for the free kick. Step up Leon to take it and he found the bottom left corner with another clinical strike 2-0. We introduced Yusuf for Tayub and he was immediately into into the action. On 34 minutes Uppermill broke just into the box, their two target challenge looked a good one to win the ball, the ref once again thought differently and awarded a penalty. With the will of the players and parents behind Luca, he made himself as big as possible to fill the goal, the ball was hit hard and low to his left and he guessed the right way to save the spot kick. With halftime almost upon us Uppermill lofted a long ball forward to one of their strikers who was 8-10 feet offside. Our players stopped thinking the offside call was a formality but the referee allowed play to continue and they scored 2-1, not the way we wanted the half to end. We spoke in the break about all the positive work the lads had done, we needed to keep at it but introduce more width. The second half started poorly for us, conceding from a corner that we just didn’t defend tightly enough on 2-2. We quickly dusted off, and as hungry as we were in the first half we retained possession and forced several corners but never really going close. The referee was playing a big part in the game for all the wrong reasons. It felt like every decision for throw ins, one on one challenges were going to Uppermill on top of the first half decisions, Eesa’s pull inside the box and the Uppermill first goal. We pushed on and Max forced a great save from the keeper on 68 minutes and with 5 minutes left, Max played the pass of the game out to Dayne on the right, who make a superbly timed run starting behind the left back. His touch and finish was fantastic giving the keeper no chance. The lads joined in the celebrations only to hear the ref blow his whistle for offside, never in the memory of man was it offside ?? The players protested with the ref but decision made offside! He’d got it horribly wrong. The final whistle blew FT 2-2. Before the game amd given the circumstances we would taken a point today but the lads truly deserved more, they responded well from the semi final defeat last week and show their togetherness with the lads we had missing ???? MOTM - Luca - Stepping to play in net he did a fantastic job, making plenty of saves including the pen ???????? Really unlucky lads ???? A huge thanks to Harrison L for coming to cheer on his teammates too ??
