Unbeaten run comes to an end for U15 South

U15 South sitting 3rd in the league played 2nd place Oakhill Tigers away on Astro turf and suffered their first league defeat in an evenly contested game, despite the scoreline suggesting otherwise.

For the league season restart, South trained on Thursday night and again on Saturday morning to make sure they were prepared for a difficult game. Sitting 1 point behind Oakhill but with a game in hand, this was an opportunity to press their advantage in the league, but with 4 players missing and a very early injury that ended the game for Max W, South found themselves 5 players down for 78 minutes and stretched for resources.

The first half was a very balanced affair with neither team looking dominant but arguably Harvesters looked the better in possession with Oakhill playing very much in the 'Mourinho counter-attack' style, which was indeed the strategy that led to the first goal of the game. South were pushing up through the left hand side only to lose the ball cheaply in midfield and with the left back stranded upfield, Oakhill quickly created a 1 on 1 against Harrison which was efficiently slotted away halfway through the first half. Equilibrium was restored 5 minutes before the break when Fuad was body checked by the biggest 14 year old boy I have ever seen and failing to win the ball in the box, the referee gave a penalty, that Fuad converted to make it 1-1 at the half time break.

The plan for the 2nd half was to wear Oakhill down by continuing to play possession football and use our superior fitness as they started to tire, however, Oakhill got a lucky break when a long speculative cross hung dangerously in the air, catching Harrison off his line and going into the far top corner of the goal to gain the advantage. 2-1.

Harvesters responded well, with Ollie trying a long shot of his own, which the keeper tipped onto the crossbar and over for a corner. Fuad made a darting run in to the box, received the ball and was again body checked, without any attempt to win the ball. This time, the referee said no penalty from his position in the centre circle some 40 yards away.

Then things got really interesting. In an almost identical attack to the 2nd goal, Oakhill tried another long speculative cross / shot down their left channel. This time the ball hit the crossbar at a shallow angle, then hit the right post and dropped onto the ground and was collected by Harrison. The linesman was out of position and gave no decision, but the referee deemed that the ball had crossed the line, from his position in the centre circle. Clearly the ball couldn't have crossed the line, as it had hit the bar before hitting the post and so could only have taken a direction away from the line, not towards it.

Harvesters tried to reply, but the game slipped away and Oakhill held on firmly to their lead and took the 3 points.