Bengeo Tigers FC

A bright sunny morning was consolation for having to make the trip down the A10 to Wormley today.

By the form both teams had been showing and our depleted squad we knew it would be a close encounter.

Frustratingly we started the first game slowly and we appeared to fear our opponents. Our hesitation to play early on cost us and we conceded two goals within the first four minutes. To be fair Wormleys second was an absolute screamer which sailed 20 yards straight into our top corner. There was little Keaton Weeks could do. In 12 minutes Alphie Marshal got his head onto a Lewis Matthews free kick and his effort was narrowly wide. This was followed by two good strikes from Lewis Matthews, the second was wide but the first required their keeper to pull off a good save. Wormley still dominated the half and on the stroke of 15 minutes they extended their lead with their third goal. Max Lawrance continually tried to create chances and ended the half nursing an injury. We couldn\'t wait for half time to arrive because our kids just hadn\'t played how to their full potential.

Keaton had injured his arm in the first half, so we switched Harry Malady-Rashford into goal at half time. After half time words of encouragement the kids started the second half with real determination. They started to play as a team and knock the ball about well. The Wormley coaching staff who had been over enthusiastic in the first half were suddenly subdued. In the first minute Lewis Matthews had another good effort, denied by the Wormley keeper. We got a goal back on four minutes, a bit of a goal mouth scramble and Alphie Marshal got a head on it to send it goal-wards. A minute later Will Arch cleared to Lewis Matthews who found Luc Howford with a lofted  ball. Luc\'s effort on goal was saved. Wormley broke on the counter attack and produced an efforts which was handled well by Harry Malady-Rashford. Seven minutes into the second half we reduced the deficit when Keaton Weeks sent a through ball to Luc Howford and Luc finished with simplicity 3-2. Not long after a good move which was started in defence from Sam Belshaws forward run led to another Lewis Matthews strike which was saved. Keaton Weeks had been like a pitbull in the second half and I lost count of the number of times he stole possession. Another through ball from Keaton found Max who\'s strike whistled past the post. On 17 minutes and totally against the run of play Wormley got a goal to take the scores to 4-2, prompting wild celebration from the Wormley coaching staff!!. The kids much to their credit, stuck at it and on 20 minutes Keaton Weeks ran down the line and knocked over a decent cross. Luc Howford met the ball and volleyed straight into the Wormley goal 4-3. The Bengeo kids were winning the second half by a country mile and we could both sense more goals. Extraordinary as it seemed the ref blew up for time three minutes early and the game ended 4-3. Marc and I were extremely pleased with the second half performance. This was a great game of football and the kids of both Wormley and Bengeo were good ambassadors for their clubs today. We awarded man of the match for the second week running to Keaton Weeks, a young lad who is maturing in attitude and sporting ability before our very eyes.

After the excitement of the first game the second was a more evenly matched encounter throughout. Patrick Sinfield demonstrated the benefits of the extra goalkeeper training with a fine save on two minutes. We came close on 13 minutes, a kick out from Patch Sinfield bounced over the Wormley defence, Will Orton connected and tried to lob the keeper sending the ball only just over the crossbar. A good block by Patrick Sinfield on 14 minutes and Zoe Martin got across lively to clear. On 19 minutes Will Orton broke down the right hand side, unable to cut in he crossed a good ball over, Ethan Jocelyn had made a good run and stretched for it and was unlucky not to connect. Zoe Martin had performed robustly on the right and she tackled to win possession before finding Will Orton. Will ran with the ball and fired a shot from an accute angle which was well saved by the Womley keeper.

 We\'d kept a clean sheet kicking uphill in the first half but I didn\'t know how the kids would hold up without the luxury of subs.

Patch Sinfield was at it again straight away in the second half and got down low to save a decent Wormley effort. He followed this up with another good save on five minutes. After this we sustained a period of pressure from Wormley, good clearances from Luke McCurry and Lewis Thomas but the ball fell to wormley outside the area. A really powerful shot that by rights should have needed up in the top of our net but for a leap and punch clear by Patch. Eight minutes into the second half Wormley took a corner which arrived at the front post, a well taken flick saw the ball loop over Patch to give Wormley a 1-0 lead. We pressed Wormley from this point on and it wasn\'t long before Joe Button equalised with a volley from the edge of the penalty area. Another save from Patch on 15 minutes and then Wormley were awarded a penalty, a wormley shot hit the hand of Joe Button, Joe didn\'t know much about it but the ref awarded a penalty. The Wormley taker struck it low and hard but the agile Patch Sinfield dived on it like a fiver blowing in the wind - another great save. From this point on it was all Bengeo and we pressed and pressed the Wormley goal. On 16 minutes Zoe martin found Will Orton with a perfectly placed through ball, we all held our breath as Will pushed towards the Wormley goal but he shot narrowly wide. Next it was a good through ball from Joe Button who found Will. Will was one on one with the keeper, surely this would be the winner but unfortunately Will was tackled by a defender tracking back. the clock struck 22 minutes and we hoped that the refs watch was working, the ball ricocheted around the wormley penalty area and shots from Will Orton, Ethan Jocelyn and Zoe Martin were all parried away. We had been playing with only one defender with five minutes remaining and Luke Mccurry\'s presence in Midfield was making a huge impact. With a couple of minutes to play all caution was thrown to the wind and Will Orton was joined in attack by Patch Sinfield. We bombarded Wormley and despite finishing with five corners in quick succession we just couldn\'t find that extra goal. the game finished 1-1, 5-4 on aggregate. Another hugely entertaining game the players from both sides were the stars today and Marc and I came away feeling very satisfied with the performance.

Good performances from all seven kids but man of the match was awarded to Luke Mccurry who did everything right today.

Marc Sinfield and Karl Howford