Youth Football: Eaton Bray Lions

Posted on April 27, 2009

EB Lions U11 - 1
Oakley Rangers U11 - 2

Lions culminated their season with one of their most illustrious showings to date, outplaying onetime title challengers Oakley for much of the opening half and a chunk of the second. There were some early threats from the visitors which were comfortably dealt with by MoM goalie Dan Kennell but ultimately Oakley found their range and sliced in a scything shot that handed them an early lead.

Strong work in midfield by Dominic Ryan, Charlie Nevitt, Mason Ashby and Aarin Johnson kept Lions in the match though, with a Chris McGee shot passing just wide of the left post.

In the second half Lions continued to demonstrate their strength in attack, as well as producing classy defensive work courtesy of Ben Roberts, Jake, Adam Bradley, James Pratt and Tom Horner. More forward work had the Rangers suddenly back peddling as Aaron Gauntlett, Will Juster, Will Petherbridge and Alex Poynter all assisted with eye-catching attacking plays, until Sean Woodhouse completed with a searing strike to level the score-line.

The visitors struggled to get back on top and eventually managed to net a second, bringing about a narrow and hard fought victory.

EB Lions U13 Girls - 5
AFC Kempston - 1

This was a must win match for the Lions and what a match this was, right from the first kick to the last the Lions were awesome. With Oliver commanding in goal and Thiel, Scott and Hudson in defence the back always looked safe. Again midfield was dominated by Ashby, Ferguson, and Kirkwood while upfront strikers French, Viljoen and Byrne caused all sorts of problems for Kempston who were unable to stop a determined Lions team from scoring five times.

The first goal came after 14 minutes after a long throw from Viljoen into the box and French headed home, a great move. Lions' second goal 3 minutes before halftime was a combination of passes starting with Ashby then Viljoen and good finish by French.

A minute into the second half from a move started from inside the Lions half the ball moved effortlessly up to French who completed a great hat-trick and the Lions were 3-0 up. The Lions continued to push forward and then with 12 minutes left against the run of play Kempston scored. The Lions replied 5 minutes later with a good individual goal from Viljoen and then in the last minute Viljoen got her second and the Lions finished a superb performance 5-1 winners.

This put the Lions into second place in Division 1 and made the Manager and Coaches very proud of every one of them, again.

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

Source: EB Lions