| Match Report |
Yardley Badgers 2 v 0 Hampton In Arden
Goal scorers: Aeysha Dean and Zak Hussain ( brother and sister)
Yardley Badgers played against a very young but very talented group of Hampton Badgers. With this in mind the Yardley Captain fielded two adults to bolster the central defensive areas. The home team’s strong defensive line up was added to with Jack in goal, right-back Edan and Islam on the left. All three of these players will be moving up into adult hockey next season and their strength, size and skill will be greatly missed by the Yardley youth squad.
The strong defensive line up was needed to quash the many attacks by the visitors, who moved fast and fluent through midfield to attack. The strong defensive line up was also used as a spring board to bring into play all our young Badgers. The home team midfield and attack were equally as young as the visitors, if not younger, and the amount of ball time each player got helped their confidence enormously.
During the first half, both teams were evenly matched with Yardley more commanding early on but Hampton getting stronger in the final twenty minutes. The half ended 0-0 with Hampton slightly edging the 35 minutes. Yardley individuals were holding onto the ball a little too long and were rapidly closed down by the visitors, putting Yardley under immense pressure. At half time it was impressed on the squad that they should get the ball under control and pass on the ball quickly for quick short passes and move the ball through the team.
Yardley implemented the ethos and controlled the second half for long periods. The use of the wide players worked in the home teams favour and many attacks came from the wide areas. Our goals came from Brother and Sister Zak and Aeysha. Both goals were wonderfully taken from far out either side of goal. The first was by Aeysha who ran into a pass from the right, and in one fluid movement hit the ball hard from 45' angle on the open side beating the keeper with a hard struck ball. Not to be out done her brother Zak not long after got into a similar position on the opposite side of goal and he brought the ball to his reverse and struck powerfully into the far side of goal. The two goal lead took a lot of pressure of the defenders and the teams play became more fluent with passes through the midfield linking up to our lone striker Cem.
The opposition never gave up and in the final five minutes got a few shots on goal but lucky for the home team they were wayward.
Following the final whistle John Ballard praised the whole squad for their excellent display and gave special mentions to Cem for his skill, work rate and near chances up front and Zak for that wonderfully struck goal.
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