Badgers Vs Hampton

Many thanks to Ubaydah for submitting this report

Result: 1-1

Goal scorers: Kyle Francis

The last away game and the penultimate game of the season called Yardley to an early start at 10:30am. The Badgers started the game with a solid '4-4-2' formation that was adjusted from last week's '2-3-5' as we didn't have a strong midfield with Aeysha and Muhammed missing.

We started the game positively with good communication with the midfield and the defence as the badgers moved as a unit with the forwards making continuous runs behind the oppositions defence. Counteracting this, Hampton started to defend, soaking in the pressure and then hitting us on the break, Hampton were also good in moving the ball around, especially into the wide areas. Hampton were pressing down into the right side of the defence where they couldn't find and gaps so quickly played it back to their adult who passed the ball down to the left side where there was space. Noah trying to close the gap was too late as the ball was crossed in and unluckily hit Rahman's foot ,deflecting it into our goal giving Hampton the lead. With only a few minutes left Yardley went on the offensive. Ubaydah made a good run into Hampton's half and Yardley began to run into the opposition's 'D'. Just outside of the 'D' Ubaydah passed the ball to Zakeryia who then took a brilliant shot which was stopped by our midfielder, Kyle , who took the ball on the reverse and scored! 1-1.

At half time Paul highlighted that the wingers weren't wide enough, therefore they never got the ball and that we needed to pressurise Hampton giving them less time on the ball.

Yardley started the second half by pressurising the opposition, giving them less time to think and forcing them to make mistakes. A few but exceptional runs from Noah who finally gained his confidence to run at Hampton. Some good foot work from Sean up front gifted us with a precious short corner, a chance to turn the tides. Noah supplied the ball to Ubaydah who clumsily didn't stop it outside the 'D' and threw away one of their best chances. Shortly after Yardley won another short corner. Ubaydah stopped the ball outside the 'D', tapped it into the 'D', faked a shot and instead flicked the ball which rebounded of the inside of the post and rolled of the line before it was cleared by their keeper. From that moment onwards Yardley knew they had to defend. Some superlative saves from our keeper Jack and some sublime effort from the rest of the team kept the score at 1-1.

The man of the match goes to Noah for excellent defending and for creating various chances with his runs. We hope to continue the good form to our last game of the season against Bourneville ( we lost 4-0 last time) and win this time.

Ubaydah Iqbal