Premier U-18 Southern League 2016-17
         Hotspur Way, Bulls Cross, Enfield
          Tuesday 21st February 2017, 1pm

             SPURS     v     SWANSEA
          (White/Blue)     (Blue/Blue)
            4-1-4-1          4-2-3-1

              4(2)             0(0)

       Brandon Austin  1  Ross Treacy
         Matthew Lock  2  Rhyddian Williams
          Tariq Hinds  3  Matthew Blake
       George Marsh(C) 4  Marko Dulca
        Timothy Eyoma  5  Joe Lewis
     Jonathan Dinzeyi  6  Ben Erickson
      Samuel Shashoua  7  Finley Hazell
           Jack Roles  8  Cameron Berry
        Reo Griffiths  9  Sean Hanbury
 Tashan Oakley-Boothe 10  Oliver Cooper
      Keanan Bennetts 11  Kieran Evans

       Jamie Reynolds 12  Owen Bailey
            (8)59Mins
       Alfie Whiteman 13  Alex Long
                          (1)22Mins
Pablo Gonzalez-Velasco14  Causso Darame
           (11)68Mins     (4)46Mins
      Muroyin Omolabi 15  Mason Jones-Thomas
            (4)62Mins     (10)62Mins
          Jaden Brown 16  Matthew Roberts

Scorers:- 
       Hinds 12, 29
       Roles 46
       Shashoua 56

Booked:-
       Marsh 35(Foul)     Dulca 9(Foul)
                          Lewis 12(Abuse)

Coach:-
       J. McDermott       C. Llewellyn

Referee:– S. Franklin
Assistants:– F. Costache & M. Cannon

It was an overcast, cool afternoon with a few drops of rain for the re-arranged match against the visitors Swansea City. The game had been moved twice due to the Youth Cup run and the need to finish the first league phase by March. Swansea came to this match following a 2-0 loss at Southampton while Spurs had lost 3-0 to Fulham. Earlier in the season Spurs had come back from two goals down to draw at Swansea 2-2 thanks to a brace from Jack Roles.

Because some of the Academy players had taken part in Monday evening's victory over Sunderland in the Premier League 2 match, McDermott had to make changes from team for the last Under-18 team outing. The most notable was switching Hinds to left back in place of Tsaroulla. Austin was in goal behind Eyoma and Dinzeyi with Lock at right back and Hinds on the left. Marsh anchored the midfield with Roles and Oakley-Boothe ahead of him. On the right flank was Shashoua with Bennetts on the left in support of Griffiths up front.

Spurs defended the South end in the first half and quickly tried to move the ball on the ground using the wide players and over-lapping full backs as the "Swans" held a high line, tackling hard for the ball. With Spurs on the front foot it was the visitors who had the first chance when Evans fired over from distance. Their attempts to hold that high line saw an early booking for Dulca for fouling Bennetts as he skipped past him on the left.

Spurs took an early lead when Shashoua got round the back on the left and his ball in for Roles saw the midfielder slip. However, the ball came out to Hinds to score first time with his right foot from 10 yards. Lewis was booked for arguing with the referee. Swansea goalkeeper Treacy had to go off after Griffiths blocked an attempted clearance and the keeper could not run it off. Dinzeyi headed over from a Bennetts corner. Long, the replacement keeper, wearing the number 21, was soon in action saving from Roles who had been played in by Shashoua. Long then got across to save the follow up shot from Bennetts. Two minutes later and he was beaten when Griffiths laid the ball out to Hinds and the full back stepped inside to fire into the far corner from 20 yards.

Blake fired over from a half-cleared corner before Marsh was booked for a foul on Berry. Cooper fired well over before a rocket from Oakley-Boothe was too strong for Long to hold but he recovered before Bennetts could follow up. Spurs went in at half-time with Hinds on a hat trick.

Swansea made a change for the second half but conceded again in the first minute when a corner from Shashoua found the head of Dinzeyi. The defender mis-judged his header and it dropped invitingly for Roles to drive in. Two minutes later, Hinds had the chance to complete his hat-trick when Griffiths played the ball into his path but Long saved for a corner.

Chances were coming for Spurs now as Long saved from Griffiths when played in by Bennetts and Shashoua set up Roles to hit over. Shashoua ran in behind to collect the centre by Hinds and score the fourth. That signalled the bench to use the squad and Spurs made their three changes during the next ten minutes. Roles came off first to be replaced by Reynolds and he was followed by Omolabi coming on for Marsh with Oakley-Boothe dropping to anchor the midfield. The last change saw Gonzalez-Velasco replace Bennetts on the left.

Handbury fired over from distance before Shashoua struck the crossbar from the edge of the area. Hazell fired wide following a corner. The play switched quickly to the other end, as Gonzalez-Velasco drew a save when played in by Oakley-Boothe, winning a corner. Pablo had another two chances in the space of a minute when he first fired over and then headed over a cross from Dinzeyi who had carried the ball out of defence. Austin had to save a free kick by Darame before Shashoua had the last chance of the game playing a one-two with Griffiths only to drive wide of the far post.

This was a fairly easy if uncomfortable victory over the League's bottom club with two goals in each half. Playing on the left, Hinds was able to score twice as using his right foot the balls curled into the net from that side. The visitors made it hard for Spurs keeping a high line and taking the idea that football is a contact sport as often as the ref would allow. Spurs' passing got better and they were able to avoid the challenges as the game wore on and indulged in a few heavy tackles themselves.

On Saturday Spurs travel to Aston Villa before finishing the first phase of this season's campaign with a trip to Arsenal

Ray

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