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Courtesy of:- Ray Lo, and the Spurs List.
FA Premier Academy League – South
Spurs Lodge, Luxborough Lane, Chigwell
30th September 2006, 11am
SPURS V READING
(White/Blue) (All Red)
4-4-2 4-4-2
2(1) 2(2)
David Button 1 Ross Kitteridge
Takura Mtandari 2 Dan Spence
Cian Hughton 3 Julian Kelly
Matthew Wells 4 Jem Karacan(C)
Troy Archibald
-Henville 5 Adam Bygrave
Dorian Dervite 6 Alex Pearce
Jamie Davis 7 James Henry
Jake Livermore(C)8 Gylfi Sigurdsson
Tomas Pekhart 9 Simon Church
Daniel Hutchins 10 Nicholas Bignall
Jacques Maghoma 11 Luke Williams
David Hutton 12 Harrison Bailey
(10) 70Mins.
Richie Stroud 13
Joe Martin 14 Simon Cox
(5)46Mins.
Andros Townsend 15 Josh Webb
(7)46Mins.
16 Tom Hateley
17 Jamel Forde-Small
Scorers:-
Pekhart 6 Henry (Pen)33
Hutton 78 Bignall 43
Booked:-
Hughton 90 Kelly 70
There was plenty of Spurs pedigree on display at Spurs Lodge today, when the under-18s met their counterparts from Reading. Spurs under-18s are now formally coached by Alex Inglethorpe, after agreement was reached this week with his former club Exeter. Spookily enough, the Reading coach was Eamonn Dolan, who Inglethorpe had succeeded as manager of Exeter in 2004.
The Spurs side included Cian Hughton at left back – son of Chris, and in midfield, the grandson of the great Cliff Jones - Matthew Wells. Just for good measure, former Spurs goal-keeper Ray Clemence was on hand today, working in his England capacity, and no doubt keeping an eye on Spurs’ young keeper, David Button.
There were a couple of classy goals by Spurs too, both scored either side of Reading's brace. Tomas Pekhart scored a cracker from 25 yards with his right foot in the 6th minute, and substitute David Hutton did the same with a great dipping shot in the latter stages.
Ray Lo reports for Spurs Odyssey:-
It was a cool morning with the rain holding off for the visit of Reading who normally give us a hard game. I was joined by Paul Smith and Andy Porter amonmgst others. Ray Clemence turned up on one of his usual visits as we have a good collection of English keepers at the Lane(this may have prompted Button getting a turn in goal). Also as the other squads were in for training, some came down to watch the game.
Spurs lined up with Archibald-Henville partnering Dervite at the back with Mtandari and Hughton outside them. Livermore and Wells played in central midfield with Davis on the right and Maghoma on the left. Hutchins partnered Pekhart up front. The bench was a little short with U-16 Townsend making his first appearance as was our new coach Alex Inglethorpe.
The visitors kicked off attacking the North End and had the ball in the net on their first attack but the linesman flagged for offside. We were worried when Pekhart was caught from behind just after that and had to have treatment on the sidelines but he was able to return and showed no ill effects when he hit a shot from 25yds out that dipped under the bar to put us in front.
The game settled into a competitive match with both sides making good use of the ball setting up chances in the final third. We then had one of those strange referee decisions where the ball is in the middle of the penalty box and the ref blows up for a foul off the ball. In this case Hughton was penalised for holding. Henry made no mistake from the spot putting the ball to the right side with Button going the other way.
Both sides kept pressing with both keepers having to work and Spurs nearly took the lead again when they had a shot cleared off the line. Instead the Royals went in front with a well worked goal. The ball was played down the left and when it was whipped in Bignall got between two defenders to score.
Spurs made two changes for the second half with Martin replacing Archibald-Henville and Townsend coming on for Davis and playing down the left with Maghoma moving over to the right.
The second half was the same as the first in that both teams continued to go forward and make the keepers work with Spurs showing more as the game went on. Hutton came on for Hutchins in a straight swap and it was he who finally beat the visitors rear-guard with another high dipping effort that dropped in over Kitteridge from outside the box. Spurs kept pushing for the winner which would put them above the visitors but they could not find the killer ball and Reading continued to counter-attack keeping the defenders from committing themselves forward.
Both sides played well and the draw was a fair result with Spurs producing more of a workmanlike performance without an outstanding individual. The next two games will be away to the MK Dons and Aston Villa. In fact they will be playing Villa on the same day as the first teams are meeting at Villa Park. Whether it is possible to see both games, I don’t know. On Wednesday it is the turn of the reserves to take on Reading at the Madjeski stadium.
Ray
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