FA Premier Academy League – South
    Spurs Lodge, Luxborough Lane, Chigwell
       Saturday 17th February 2007, 11am

             SPURS    v     WATFORD  
         (White/Blue)     (Yellow/red)
             4-4-2           4-4-2

             2(1)            1(1)
 
       Richard Stroud 1 Jonathan North
      Takura Mtandari 2 Marvin McCoy
           Alex Smith 3 Dale Bennett
          Yaser Kasim 4 John-Joe O’Toole
          Chris Casey 5 Raphael Brown
   Troy
   Archibald-Henville 6 Aaron Beech
         Cian Hughton 7 Harry Forrester
       Jake Livermore 8 Kieron Forbes
    Kyle Fraser-Allen 9 Liam Henderson
     Daniel Hutchins 10 Ewan Clarke
        David Hutton 11 Alex Camana(C)

           Jon Obika 12 Ross Jenkins
           (3)46Mins    (7)81Mins
        James Dalton 13 James Beasant
     Andros Townsend 14 Aaron Morgan
           (8)81Mins.   (11)56Mins
          Adam Smith 15 Loren Maxwell
          (2) 73Mins    (4)73Mins

Coach:-
       A. Inglethope     D. Dodds
 
Scorers:-
           Casey, 10     Camana  22 (pen)
      Hutton 57 (pen) 
Bookings:-

 Livermore(High)29 

Referee:- M. Downey

On a sunny, if a little chilled morning, Spurs welcomed Hertfordshire neighbours Watford to the Lodge. It was watched by a well supporting crowd of around sixty with some of the Reserves dropping by after their training session, along with Martin Jol.

Spurs lined up with Archibald-Henville and Casey at the back with Mtandari at right back and Alex Smith at left. Kasim, and the returning Livermore were in the centre, with Hughton on the right and Hutton on the left. Up front was a new strike partnership of Fraser-Allen and Hutchins. Both have played there, but not together. On the bench were players from the U-16’s. Pekhart was training with the Reserves for Monday’s trip to the Hammers.

The visitors kicked off attacking the North end with a fairly strong side captained by the experienced reserve player Campana. The game was a fairly even game in the first half with chances at both ends, as each side pushed forward. It looked more even than it was as the linesman on the Spurs half could not keep level with the play and missed several offsides because of it. Spurs took the lead after ten minutes from a corner floated in by Hutton and headed in by Casey just ahead of Livermore. We actually looked dangerous from set pieces today despite the Hornets having plenty of tall players. Watford continued to break quickly and Mtandari was adjudged to have tripped Forbes in the area to concede a penalty which Campana converted. Watford nearly took the lead when Stroud saved at the feet of a player who received the ball well offside.

Spurs started the second half with Obika on in place of Alex Smith. Hughton dropped to full back with Obika playing wide in front of him. Spurs began to get on top as they attacked more down the wings with good overlapping from the full backs who both got into the area. Spurs second goal came from play down the right when Mtandari played the ball to Hutton and went for the return at the near post only to be fouled. Hutton put the penalty low to the right of North. Watford nearly equalised again when Clarke beat the advancing Stroud but was adjudged to have fouled Archbald-Henville. Most of the play now was around the visitors goal with North making fine saves as Fraser-Allen, Mtandari, Hutton and Casey all went close. Adam Smith came on for Mtandari and Townsend replaced the tiring Livermore without the pressure dropping. The ref adding ten minutes for various stoppages and the Watford Captain was asking for more.

The somewhat make-shift side today played well and should have scored more goals against a well organised Watford side. Without Pekhart the balls coming in from the wings tended to be low which suited our front two better. Next week we are away to second placed Reading. Before that, the Reserves will play West Ham on Monday at Bishop Stortford.

Ray

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