U16 Match Report – Petersfield Spitfires vs Complete United – 22/01/2022

Jan 27, 2022

On Saturday we travelled to Petersfield for what we knew would be a tough game in the league. We went together in the minibus and there were good vibes from everyone; their singing voices definitely needed some work though… 

Once we’d arrived, the boys warmed up well, and they knew that it was time to get focused on the task ahead. The warm up lasted a bit longer than planned however, as the opposition struggled to unlock the padlock for the goals, which meant kick off was delayed slightly. Not a problem for our lads however as it gave them longer to prepare for the game. 

We started the game extremely well, taking control of the midfield and moving the ball about well, utilising the space (the pitch was massive!). It wasn’t long before we made our breakthrough, when Andrew was fouled in the box and we were awarded a penalty. Dylan stopped up and fired it into the bottom right hand corner of the goal to put us 1-0 up. We kept up the pressure and created some chances but we weren’t able to take them. Petersfield were looking to create chances on the counter attack and managed to force a great save from Albert who got down to his right really quickly to keep the ball out. We went 2-0 up towards the back end of the first half, a superb corner from Lewis AKA Trent Alexander-Arnold was headed in by Sam. We could have gone into half time with more goals but we just couldn’t take our chances, the most notable being a strike inside the box from Reggie which he almost caught too well and it flew over the bar.  

Petersfield came out fighting in the second half and were threatening more, creating chances and giving our defence something to think about. However, we were effective on the counter and created some decent chances ourselves, but again, we couldn’t get the ball in the back of the net. It was a very physical game, and in the later stages of the second half it began to boil over. There were some poor decisions made by some of our players, making antagonising comments when it wasn’t necessary, causing more problems for us by riling up the opposition. Throughout the whole second half, Petersfield were very threatening from corners and on numerous occasions they were very close to scoring from one. They were convinced one had crossed the line, when it hadn’t (as backed up in the footage) At this point in the game, tempers were starting to boil over, and Petersfield scored with 5 minutes left to play, a good through ball and a tidy finish. Lewis was the first one to the ball after the goal and began to dribble it towards the halfway line, when one of their players shoved him to the ground as they wanted to hurry up the restart of the game. It was after this that one of our players, an attacker who was at the other end of the pitch, decided to get involved and made a really poor decision to sprint over and push one of their players to the ground and get himself sent off. This was completely unacceptable, and we do not condone the behaviour of the player at all and it will be dealt with by the club.

 

The game finished 2-1, and as good as it was to get the 3 points, myself and Kris were not in high spirits as we feel a few of our boys did not conduct themselves in the right manner and this put a real negative impact on the win itself. A special mention to James who was Man of the Match, he had an outstanding performance in midfield.

Goals: Dylan (P), Sam

MOM: James