Youth Football: Eaton Bray Lions

Posted on February 23, 2009

Langford U11 - 3
EB Lions U11 - 2

Dominic Ryan's brace of goals ensured Lions stayed afloat throughout a tough match on Sunday, but ultimately the visitors were undone by the tenacious forward work of their on-form hosts.

Langford found success from their goal kicks, with repeated shots hoisted above the Lions defenders, who were forced to scramble back. Even so, Tom Horner's lively pace was sufficient to arrest a series of attacks, and safe play by Adam Bradley, Aarin Johnson and James Pratt put paid to the majority of Langford's striking opportunities.

Heading into the second half 1-2 down, midfielders Mason Ashby, Ben Roberts, Charlie Nevitt and Chris McGee worked well to control the pace and breadth of the game, assisting forwards Alex Poynter, Will Petherbridge, Aaron Gauntlett and deserving MoM Will Juster with a sequence of striking opportunities. In the end it was left to Dominic to scoop up a pass from just beyond the halfway line and outrun the Langford defenders to score a dramatic equaliser.

Keeper Dan Kennell, who had exhibited a succession of fine saves, was ultimately beaten by a slicing shot to put the home team a goal ahead in the final 10 minutes.

EB Lions U9 Reds - 1
Bushmead Rovers - 0

This was only our second match since mid November 2008, and what a match! Playing Bushmead Rovers who are currently top of Division 1, the Lions knew that they would have to work hard to get a result. The Lions had both defenders away so new signing Findlay Christie was needed to play as a defender and did really well. Captain George Oliver and Jack Nevitt were both asked to play as a defender for half a match and they responded by playing a really solid role keeping the Lions strong in defence.

When in midfield, Oliver and Nevitt teamed up well with Dax Roe and Jack Quigley who took it in turns to play the striker role. The first half ended with both teams having played some great football at a very high tempo. The second half started as the first had finished with chances at both ends and the match very evenly balanced, with either team capable of getting a result. In the last few seconds it was Roe who scored the goal that finally separated the teams. This match is what football is all about - quality, passion, determination and entertaining. Well done, both teams.

Team: Roe, Quigley, Nevitt, Oliver, Higgs, Luff, Christie.

EB Lions U13 Girls - 0
Biggleswade - 4

This was the first time that these two teams had played, and what a great match played at high tempo!

The first 15 minutes saw Lions pushing forward and giving the opposition all sorts of problems and it was against the run of play that Biggleswade scored. With five minutes left before half time, Biggleswade scored a second and despite some good efforts on goal from Hattie French, Megan Viljoen and Shannon Byrne the Lions couldn't score. Our midfield of Darcy Ashby, Devon Ferguson and Bethan Woolsey were always looking for ways to break down the opposition.

With the score at 2-0 against, the Lions started the second half looking solid in defence with Katy Thiel, Eden Scott and Elsa Kirkwood trying to push forward to help get a goal back. The Lions goalkeeper GoM Nancy Oliver had a great match and it was unfortunate that with the Lions pushing forward there were times when she was left exposed which resulted in the opposition scoring halfway through the second half and in the last minute. This was a proper cup match with both sides giving their all to provide an exciting, high-tempo and entertaining game.

Team: Oliver, Thiel, Scott, Ashby, Ferguson, French, Viljoen, Kirkwood, Woolsey, Byrne.

Source: EB Lions