Date

09/10/05

U15 White

0

V

9

Romford Borough

The Rosser Cup (County Cup)

The U15 Whites have never received much luck when the draws for Cup competition have been made. There has been no change this season with Forest being drawn against Romford Borough in this County Cup tie. Romford play in the CYFL Division 1 and last year were defeated semi-finalists in this Cup.

So it was always going to be a difficult tie and things couldn’t have started worse for the Forest Glade boys. After possession was given away on the left, the pace of the Romford attack led to a rash challenge and a free-kick to the visitors, on Forest’s left flank just outside of the goal area. The set-piece was delivered with pace behind the defence and bundled into the goal.

It would have been easy for Forest to fold immediately but the boys reacted positively and continued to attempt to play football.

Forest struggled to clear the lines convincingly in the first half. The defence were under continual pressure and whilst defending well had to concede corner after corner. These were delivered expertly into the Forest box and caused a huge problem to defend. The second goal came from a corner in the 7^th minute, it was cleared but fell to a Romford player at the edge of the area. His shot was well saved by Elliott but only parried to an oncoming Romford player for an easy tap-in.

Probably the goal of the game came after 25 minutes when the Romford No. 12 showed excellent technique in controlling a high long pass on the left. The control led to him being able to quickly cut inside and his pace left 2 Forest players behind him. He attacked the goal and calmly slotted the ball past Elliott Thwaites.

Elliott had to be at his best to keep Romford from setting a cricket score as they sent wave after wave of attack at the Forest goal. The whole of the Forest team battled hard but the quickness and strength of the Romford team proved too much for the Forest boys.

Another goal came from a corner which bounced off the post and fell to a striker for a tap-in and the 5^th came on half-time with a well driven shot from the right beating the keeper.

To their credit the Forest boys didn’t lose heart or stop trying to play football even when the 2^nd half started like the first when they conceded after just a minute of the restart.

There were some good performances with Tom Pearson defending well on the left. and Danny Barker working hard on the right. Forest held out for the next 20 minutes but with the whole team chasing the ball for almost all of the game, fatigue set in towards the end of the half. Forest conceded another 3 goals.

Andrey Kotov playing as centre-forward was becoming frustrated as it was very difficult for the rest of the team to supply him with any meaningful service.

But eventually the ball was played over the top of the Romford defence. Andrey’s pace immediately troubled the Romford defender who held him back as they went for the ball. The subsequent free-kick was swung in by Jack Hawthorn but just missed by Greg Fedden and cleared by Romford.

Whilst the defeat was heavy, the team was commended by both the opposing manager and the referee for their commitment and spirit. The team were beaten by a very skilful and talented team and there was no disgrace in the result. In fact if the team plays with this effort through the rest of the season they will surely have some great successes.