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