Youth Reports 2015-16

27 September 2015

Northwood Under 18 Black 6  Oakhill Tigers Falcons 1 - League Cup Round 1

This was very much the proverbial "game of two halves", as the Woods looked to continue their excellent start to the season. The fluent passing game that the team pride themselves on was missing for much of the first half, a half that the Woods dominated from a possession point of view. However the first 45 minutes was probably the poorest the Boys have played all season. Despite this, Man of the Match Thomas West fired in a fierce drive from the edge of the box but luckily, for the visitors, the ball went straight at their Goalie, who was able to clear the danger.

The visitors' goalie was saving everything that was fired in at him, but could do nothing about a header from Dan Linfield that had him beaten. Unfortunately the ball came back off the crossbar. Since joining Northwood, last season, Dan has headed against the crossbar on probably half a dozen occasions, if not more. It will be just a matter of time before he finds the back of the net. Despite the Woods domination, the score remained 0-0 at half time.

The Woods started to pass the ball more in the second half and it appeared only a matter of time before they would take the lead, despite a fine display by the visitors' goalie. The goal came about 10 minutes into the second half when a glancing header from Henry Gibbor finally beat the Visitor's goalie. Shortly after, Henry became provider as Pearce White, making his debut for the Black team, scored with a tap in. The visitors made a mess of the subsequent Kick off resulting in Henry Gibbor doubling his personal tally.

At 3-0 the game was over as a contest, and the Woods started to pass the ball around, at ease, switching play and dominating possession even more. The ever enthusiastic Thomas West subsequently scored two goals, before the Woods needlessly gave away possession in their own half allowing the visitors to score a consolation goal. There was still enough time for Henry Gibbor to complete his hat trick, scoring the Woods sixth goal of the second half, as the Woods progressed into the second round.
Brian Gibbor

Northwood Under 12s Reds 4 Hendon United Natanya Reds 9 - League Cup

This is definitely one we will have to forget very quickly. A new formation of 2 -3-3 was tried and after finding ourselves 0-2 very quickly we decided to switch back to the more familiar back 3. Almost straight away a fantastic run from Ashley and a finish to match brought the boys right back into the game 1-2. But again the team did not defend well as a unit with large gaps in front of the back 3 leaving Hendon all sorts of space to exploit then often leaving the back 3 overrun. 2-1 Hendon soon turned into 5-1. Hendon's number 11 was having the sort of game that he could only dreamt of the night before with everything he hit went in. Lewis Reid did manage to snatch a goal back just before half time to make it 2-5. The half time talk was focused around telling the boys that strangely they weren't out of the game as whilst the score lines looked bad we had played a lot higher quality teams and won so the message was "the next goal was key" but go out and believe in their ability and want the game.

The second half started and again a lapse of concentration saw Hendon go 6-2. What happened next was one of the most bizarre penalty decisions I have ever seen, the Hendon goalkeeper handled outside of the penalty area and for some reason the ref gave us a penalty as ever I did not argue with the ref, Lewis Reid stepped up scored 3-6. After showing great determination Joshua got it back to 4-6 could this be the comeback ? Unfortunately no, Hendon scored 3 further goals as the boys again tried to push forward to fight their way back into the game The final result was 4-9.

Joshua was awarded the player of the match as he must of covered the complete pitch turning up at centre back at some stages of the game as well as turning up in the midfield closing players down, well done to him. Well out of the League Cup in round 1 and after last weeks great performance this is one to forget. Next week we have the Challenge Cup and I am sure we will play better.
Dave Blincko

Northwood Under 8 Reds v West Herts Stags

The Reds hosted West Herts in their first home game of the season; it was also the first time the Reds had come up against local rivals West Herts. Northwood carried on their fine form from last week's win with another impressive performance. Northwood never really let off West Herts scoring 10 goals and were very unlucky not to add to that. Goals scored by Antonio (4) Kingston (2) Tobi (2) Aman (1) Shaan (1)
 
MOM - Sam Gleeson - Stand in goalkeeper for the day due to Jordan Butcher being away with Arsenal commitments. Sam pulled of some great saves and was the starter of many counter attacks with his great distribution. He was very unlucky not to come away with a clean sheet but should be very proud of his performance in goal.
Jay Hall