After an up and down pre-season, Tudor Sports reserves finally got their season underway. With internationals this weekend, this gave the local residents of new eltham a chance to come and watch their local side. A thrill seeking 58 fans made the journey and were in full voice throughout.
With key players missing Tudor Sports fielded a mixture of youth and shere experience for the game against a strong Belvedere side. They welcome Alfie Esqulant, Tom Haslam and Scott Butler from the 1st team.
The game started slowly with both teams trying to make their mark on the season already. After 10 minutes of scrappy football it was clear there was only going to be one winner in this match. Tudor Sports 'zipped' the ball around on a magnificent playing surface, to leave there slightly overweight opponents chasing shadows. Both goalkeepers were not really tested untill the 25th min when stefan moore was put through with a marvelous ball from jordan hay. The goalkeeper being the victor this time around. By this point in the game, half time couldnt of come any sooner for Belvedere who were clearly struggling with the pace of the game. There two giant Centre midfielders were both getting beaten in the air by both jordan haye and phillip rogan. But half time was the last thing on the minds of the Tudor players who now had begun to find gaps in the belvedere defence. Alfie Esqulant had two glorious chances to open his account for the season. His first was a one on one chance coming from audatious football from jordan haye, stefan moore and Esqulant himself, but unfourtunately he blasted the ball over from 17 yards. His second was a cheeky lob, which fooled everyone as crashed into the side netting.
HALF TIME
SECOND HALF
After a comfortable first half, it was clear that Gary Wright wasnt happy that his side were not leading at half time, but was extremely impressed by the football on show. After a quiet start it was clear that Alfie wasnt at full fitness and was replaced by Nick Hallam on the 57 mark. Nick adapted quickly to the pace and impressed early on. Not long after Joe Townsend was replaced by Reece Haye. With the game still at 0-0 it was going to take something special to break the deadlock. And something special it was, after a bit of a scramble stefan moore found space from 23 yrds out were he struck the ball on the volley, which nearly ripped through the net. a goal to remember this. 1-0. From this point on it didnt get any better for the away team with the football from Tudor only getting stronger. With Gary wright replacing Stefan moore for Alex Alton, it seemed they were going to settle for 1-0. But this was not the case as on the 78th minute, a goalmouth scramble found its was to Reece Haye who made no mistake in firing the ball into the goal. 2-0. From what seemed to be a comfortable 80 minutes turnt into heart in mouth stuff as on 86 minutes Belvedere found there way thorugh the tudor defence and their striker made no mistake in simply lobbing Haslam in goal. But after 3 minutes of added time the final whistle was blown and Tudor Sports took all 3 points. Belvedere were gracious in defeat and most certainly did not expect that strong of a performance from a so called 'pub team'.
Man of the match today was Phillip Rogan, not because it was his birthday but he was relentless from the first minute to the last.
