ON A weekend where many local games fell victim to waterlogged pitches due to the heavy rain, the team arrived at Pelican Park to play Pelican Utd to be greeted by a newly laid pitch which was more bowling green than football pitch!
Once more Hedon were hit by withdrawals, with James and Layton unavailable the team arrived at Lambwath Road with only nine players.
The team lined up with Jacob in goal, Louie and Freddie in defence, with Georgia, Max and Finley in midfield and Alfie up top.
The game kicked off and on the pristine surface both teams looked to get the ball down and the game developed into a keenly contested affair with some great football on display.
Both keepers were called into service as the action swung from end to end, and eventually the deadlock was broken as Alfie capitalised on some hesitancy in the Pelican defence to race through and finish emphatically past the keeper to give Hedon the lead.
However, Pelican hit back with a great finish to level the score and despite the introduction of Joseph and Kaelan the half finished with the sides still unable to be separated.
The second half began with Louie and Max protecting Jacob; Kaelan, Georgia and Finley manned the midfield and Joseph went up front.
The game continued to be a tight affair, Hedon creating the lion’s share of the chances, though, with Joseph, Finley and Georgia having good opportunities, either being denied by the outstanding Pelican keeper or some last-ditch defending.
Alfie and Freddie were introduced and proved to be inspired changes as from some great play down Pelican’s left Alfie finished perfectly off the post to claim the first game for the Red and Blues.
Game two began as a carbon copy of the first with Hedon taking the lead through yet another good finish from Alfie and Pelican drawing level.
Hedon then scored from a sweeping move down their right as Max played Alfie in. He played a perfect ball into the path of Joseph who made no mistake with a crisp first-time finish.
Pelican then scored two quick goals to move into the ascendancy only for Alfie to grab a deserved draw for Hedon with anther accomplished finish.
Two great games between two sporting sides on one of the best pitches I’ve seen in local football all contributed to a fantastic advertisement for Under-9s football, a fact not lost on the sizeable crowd watching.
Jacob: great hands once again, gets better every game.
Louie: back to his best, great performance.
Freddie: solid at the back and full of running when pushed into midfield.
Georgia: fantastic workrate, unlucky not to get on the scoresheet.
Kaelan: his best game for some time, tackled and ran his socks off.
Max: fantastic runs from deep and tackled hard, could have scored on another day.
Finley: another excellent display, bossed the middle of the park
Joseph: led the line well, took his goal perfectly. Showed his versatility in defence.
Alfie: ran his socks off in attack and in midfield, accomplished in front of goal.
A difficult choice for player of the match but coach Pete went for Louie and Joseph.
Well done, guys!
Next week we play our final game of this phase at home against Kingswood United Hotspurs (weather permitting!), kick-off 11.30am. #UTR!
