London Macabi Lions v St Albans
(16th Oct)
This Challenge Cup match away to the London Macabi Lions was always going to be a hard affair given that they are three divisions above the U13 West team, and have won the first three matches of their season. Macabi began well and took the lead after seven minutes when a ball cleared from the West defence was struck very well from at least 25 yards into the back of the net. A well worked passing move led to their second after 20 minutes, and two more were added before half time as the West defence failed to get their tackles in, while the midfield were struggling to dominate as they have done in previous weeks.
The second half began a lot better as West won more of the ball and started
to pass it better. Chances were now being created, but none were clear
enough to put the opposing goalkeeper under pressure. The midfield, which
included Chris Welch making his debut, were trying hard to provide the
through balls to the strikers that had proved so effective in recent matches
but without the same success.
Unfortunately the improvement from the boys led to Macabi raising their game
and they soon added to their total despite some good work from substitute
goalkeeper Joe Murtagh. The boys deserve a lot of credit though for not
letting their heads drop and they kept working hard to make a breakthrough.
Towards the end they managed to create some decent chances. The first
came from Miles Smith who played a good ball to Carl Biggs, whose attempt to
lob the keeper only just failed. Soon after, George Figg played a
lovely cross into the box, which was headed home by Matt Peckham for a well
deserved consolation goal.
The 9-1 final score line looks worse than it was, as they played a very strong Macabi team, who could have scored a lot more if it wasn’t for some good defending at times.
Final Score: Macabi Lions 9-1 St Albans
Joint man of the match: Ryan Maher, Stuart Cole, Charlie C