Back to winning ways for U15 South

After last week's first league defeat of the season, U15 South needed to bounce back against West Herts Bucks in this hurriedly arranged fixture on a very wet and cold Sunday afternoon and in a game that South bossed in terms of chances, the boys made hard work of getting the away result.

With 2 players self isolating as a precaution, 2 players injured and 1 returning from injury, resources were a bit stretched for our first game against a West Herts team, but with Fuad in the team for the Christmas fixtures and Archie back, there was a feeling of optimism.

The first half was relatively even, but Harvesters made the better chances, with clever through-balls which whizzed across the wet surface, or chipped balls over the top to make the defence turn to create opportunities to shoot. Chances came and went with shots either way over the bar or straight at the keeper with several of the forward players being guilty of wasted shots. Every South attack was being forced through the middle, despite the wide pitch offering lots of space down the flanks. Finally the breakthrough came from a right sided corner, taken short by Monty and fed into Fuad, whose delayed curling cross hung nicely in the air and seemed to catch the defence flat footed for Max W to head home to make it 0-1. Harrison did well in goal to gather a 1 on 1 before the West Herts striker got onto a through ball, which was really the only chance created by West Herts in the 1st half, thanks to a brilliant defensive first half performance. 0-1 at HT.

The second half was much more eventful. West Herts looked determined to get back into the game and their chance came from pure determination. South's defence was unsettled by an unplanned change from an ankle injury and a misplaced clearance fell straight to the WH striker who made light work of the opportunity and unlike Harvesters, kept his shot low and well placed into the bottom corner of the net. 1-1.

The game became a bit more tense for everyone. First Archie had an excellent counter attack opportunity when running from inside his own half onto a through ball from Fuad. As he raced away, the lines-person's flag stayed down, but the referee blew for a questionable offside. The build up of tension in both teams increased with several 'interesting' referee decisions which eventually led to Harvesters receiving a 'sin-bin' offence for too much feedback to the referee, leaving them temporarily down to 10 players. This event seemed to rally South and a series of chances were created from some clever midfield play and finally using the wide areas to better effect. 4 shots went over the bar, another fiercely struck shot from Monty was pushed onto the bar by the West Herts Keeper and another 2 shots went wide of the left hand post, before Fuad finally broke the deadlock, with a low shot that went through the keepers legs! 1-2, sin-bin over and South were back to 11 players with a slim lead and 15 minutes to go. West Herts worked hard to get level and had their best spell of the game with several goal-mouth scrambles, corners and long throw-ins that made Harrison and the rest of the defence work really hard to keep their lead with Max W clearing off the line.

Finally the game was put to bed with 5 mins remaining. Monty used the left side channel space to push on with the ball, beat his defender and then rather than shoot from a narrow angle, he cut the ball back in a very familiar training routine for Jack to hit a sweet shot on the half-volley which went into the WH bottom right hand corner. 1-3 and game over.