Badgers Vs Bournville

Yardley Badgers 4 v 1 Bournville

Goalscorers Zak Hussain x2, Cem and Jake Bowkett

Yardley again started with a reduced team (nine players) but with the early warm up proving a lot of vibrancy and energy, the team started the game brightly and passed to each other with positivity in the early exchanges.

The Bournville Captain sportingly said he would reduce his playing eleven to ten to make the game more even and he included more young players from his squad. This was very sporting and did indeed make a very even game with both team getting chances in the “D”.

After the early possession that Yardley earned, after ten minutes the Bournville players began to get the upper hand and for long spells in the half the home team defended deep halting the visitors fast runs into the danger areas. Bournville put many a good cross into the “D” and fortunately the powerful crosses didn’t connect to the waiting strikers.

Yardley conceded many penalty corners but the Yardley defence again cleared the danger and set up counter attacks getting a few shots at goal themselves in the opponents congested “D”. Going into half time 0-0 Yardley felt the happier team.

The half time team talk was a calm discussion between the whole Yardley team and it was decided to shuffle a few players around to change the teams shape to develop more central possession. This proved to help the home teams play, but again for fifteen minutes the visitors again had good forays into the home teams “D”. Then from a Yardley short passing play from the back to the wide left player, who then passed to Zak who interlinked for a quick one two and once in the “D” Zak hit a power low shot giving the home team the lead. Within minutes the central possession by Jake set up Zak again who crossed to the back post and two waiting strikers Cem and Sean both took s a shot at the goal with Cem slotting it past the diving keeper. Then again within minutes the home team won a penalty corner, this was pushed out hard and Zak dribbled past the out rushing defenders and hit a low reverse shot going into the far side of the goal. It was three nil, in the space of eight minutes. The visitors trying to resettle the balanced placed their adult onto the pitch to help set the defence and set up play from the back. The stronger players in the Bournville team tried extremely hard to break down the defence of Yardley and did come close on many occasions. The keeper was called into making many saves to keep the clean sheet. The crosses kept coming and fortunately the shots on the back post went narrowly wide. Jake, Sean and Cem kept working hard in the midfield and with the assistance of Zak and Barakah more chances came for Yardley catching the visitors on the counter attack.

Another penalty corner won by Yardley again fell to Zak who shot a low ball goal-ward bound and Jake waiting on the back post slotted in the fourth goal for Yardley. The team began to defend deep in the final five minutes, to keep their solid shape. The visitor’s attacks were getting more constant and again the Yardley Keeper Anthony had to make some telling saves. Aeysha playing back in defence made some great timely tackles, then ran out of defence to give the team a release from the pressure. There was constant pressure by Bournville in the final moments. This pressure led to a consolation goal which was well earned. The game was more even than the score line represents and both teams got many chances in the “D”, fortunately for Yardley every shot on target for them went into the back of the net. It was a fantastic team effort by Yardley. All the team made valuable contributions throughout the 70 minutes.