Bengeo Tigers FC

We were in action on Friday evening in a 60 minute game against West Ham Academy. The kids raised their performances against a very good side and finished the game trailing by only one goal, 8-7 the final score. There were some contenders for goal of the season from Lewis Matthew, Alphie Marshall and William Orton and the defending was on another level. Myself and Marc came away very proud after witnessing a terrific team performance.

We hoped the players would recover in time for our midday fixture at home to a decent Potters Bar Crusaders side, the following day.

A great first half performance from the seven boys in the first half. We played good football and dominated throughout. We took the lead when Joe Button latched on to a deflection and drove the ball low and hard from the edge of the Potters Bar penalty area. We thought we should have been five up at half time, Luke McCurry and William Orton both hit the cross bar and the Potters bar keeper made save after save. However against the run of play Potters Bar put away their only opportunity of the half and the 1-1 scoreline at half time did not reflect the performance.

We again made a good start to the second half and hit the frame a couple more times. Luke McCurry took the GK shirt for the second half and as the game progressed we felt that we were missing his industry which had been so apparent in the first half. I lost count of the number of shots that went just wide or were saved but we were eventually punished and Potters Bar took the few chances that they created. Two more goals and an own goal saw the game end 4-1. The ref, the man walking his dog and the old lady making the teas couldn\’t understand how we had lost 4-1.

We awarded man of the match to William Orton.

A lack-luster start to the second game and it was apparent a few heads were down from the scoreline in the first game. We ended this half trailing 2-0. A Phil Brown team talk on the pitch at half time, we asked the kids to repeat the performance of the previous evening and set them a target of winning the half. The kids responded magnificently and we witnessed a greater determination from the whistle. It only took us a minute to grab a goal, the ball was passed around well and eventually found Lewis Matthews in the penalty area. Lewis\’s strike found the back of the net. The kids dominated this half and played attractive football. We threw everything at the game and the full backs Harry Malady-Rashford and Lewis Thomas made frequent forward runs creating havoc. On a day with little luck going our way Potters Bar scored on a counter attack. We lost Max Lawrence to injury and Luc Howford finished the game in goal,the game finished 3-1. We only had praise for the second half performance. We lost 7-2 on aggregate, Potters Bar are a decent side but the score was not a reflection on the football played by Bengeo today.

We awarded man of the match to Sam Belshaw.

Karl Howford & Marc Sinfield

What was expected to be a closely fought fixture opened well for Sumatrans. With an attacking starting line-up of Sam Rider in goal, Zack, Craig, Richard and Ben in defence, Warren, James Levy, Chris and Tyler in midfield, Robert and Andrea as strikers and Calum and Sam Milne in reserve, Bengeo applied good pressure on their opponents and for the first quarter of an hour there wasn’t much to separate the two sides. Welwyn came close with a 16 min strike which hit Bengeo’s post then succeeded in netting their first goal a minute later. Around this time Sumatrans were hit with some bad luck when, moments apart, Ben and Zack retired through injury, forcing the use of both subs – including substitute goalkeeper Sam Milne as an outfield player.

Sumatrans continued to press but Welwyn’s strength provided Bengeo with few opportunities to shoot.

After a further 10 mins or so of battling, Sumatrans looked to have scored when a superb long ball diagonal cross from Warren on the left dropped, after a good 30 yds, into the penalty box on the far side of Welwyn’s goal to be met by a leaping Robert who headed a cracking goal but the attempt was deemed off side. Added to this disappointment, Sky’s scored their second goal in the final minutes to take the 2 nil lead into half time.

With first half injuries shrugged off, Sumatrans tackled the second half with the benefit of subs. With Sam Milne taking to his usual position in goal, the opening minutes looked promising when, 5 minutes in, some good football led Robert to an on target shot but Welwyn countered to lead a strong attack resulting in their third goal at the second attempt after Sam blocked their first shot.

The next 20 minutes saw both teams battle hard, Sumatrans developing several spells of terrific passing football. Good work down the right by Chris was instrumental in both delivering on target shots and supplying the forwards with useful crosses, but it was Sky’s who had the edge and, despite the efforts of Sumatran’s defence including Sam’s terrific dive to palm a shot wide in the 57^th minute and his goal line clearance 8 minutes later, Welwyn eventually claimed their 4^th.

Bengeo’s goal came just a minute before the final whistle when Warren scored from a free kick to end a match that fairly reflected Welwyn’s stronger performance on the day.

Well done to Chris, named Man of the Match.

Lloyd Adams