FA Premier Academy League – South
  Spurs Lodge, Luxborough Lane, Chigwell
    Saturday 1st December 2007, 11.50am

        SPURS     V     BIRMINGHAM CITY       
    (All White)           (All Red)
        4-4-2              4-4-2
 
         3(1)              2(0)

     Jamie Butler 1 Dean Lyness
      Adam Smith  2 Jack Rutter
  Daniel Hutchins 3 Shaun Timmins
 Yasser Kasim (C) 4 James O’Brien
   Yuri Berchiche 5 Daniel Preston
  Takura Mtandari 6 David Joyce(C)
Kyle Fraser-Allen 7 Aaron Moses-Garvey
     Dean Parrett 8 Mitchell McPike 
      Alex Olsen  9 Jake Jervis
      Ryan Mason 10 Jamie Sheldon
  Jonathan Obika 11 Dean Lea

  Callum Butcher 12 Jacob Rowe
      (2)55Mins.    (5)83Mins.
     Lee Butcher 13      
    David Hutton 14 Jamie Dunphy
      (7)64Mins.    (11)74Mins
 Andros Townsend 15 Luke Hubbins
     (11)61Mins.    (9)64Mins.
         Sam Cox 16

Coach:-
  A. Inglethorpe    S. Spooner

Scorers:-
     Olsen 2       Moses-Garvey 52 pen.            
     Hutchins 53   O’Brien 88
     Townsend 85

Bookings:-
  Olsen 90+2(Dive) 

Ref:-
   B. Holderness

It was a sunny morning, with a strong wind blowing down the pitch from the South. A good crowd gathered to watch, including a party from Norway led by Espen and joined later after training by some of the Reserve group.

Spurs lined up with Berchiche and Mtandari at the back, with Smith on the right and Hutchins on the left. Kasim returned to centre midfield alongside Parrett with Fraser-Allen on the right wing and Obika on the left. Mason supported Olsen up front.

Spurs defended the North goal, but were soon on the attack with the ball being worked down the right, before Fraser-Allen crossed low for Olsen to turn it in. Spurs kept the pressure on the visitors pushing them back into their own half for long stretches of play without testing the keeper.

Mason put a snapshot wide before Berchiche, having nothing to defend, picked up the ball in his own half and advanced to hit a shot from 25 yards which Lyness saved at the far post. Fraser-Allen put in another centre which Olsen headed wide of the far post before Moses-Garvey hit a weak shot from 30 yards which Butler saved with ease.

With so much play in the Blues' half, Smith also had a run from deep before putting his effort over the bar. Moses-Garvey had another effort which he put over the bar to end a poor first half performance from the visitors.

Spurs were again quick off the mark in the second half when in the first minute Olsen crossed from the right but the ball missed Parrett and was cleared. The loose ball was picked up by Kasim only to be caught by McPike, who was lucky not to be booked.

Birmingham made a better start to the half and Moses-Garvey got behind Hutchins but was caught from behind to win a penalty. Moses-Garvey took the kick himself and sent Butler the wrong way. The visitors joy was short lived as Hutchins picked up the loose ball from the next attack and dribbled his way into the box to finish low past Lyness.

Inglethorpe replaced Smith with Butcher who went into the centre with Mtandari moving over to right back. Townsend also came on in place of Obika on the left to pep up the attack. Birmingham had another chance to score when the ball was played across the goalmouth with two players coming in. The visitors decided to change their striker and Inglethorpe brought on Hutton for Fraser-Allen starting him on the left before moving him into the centre.

With ten minutes left Townsend tried his luck from the edge of the area but Lyness saved comfortably. Hutton took a free kick from 25 yards, which he put high over the bar. With Parrett playing down the right he put in a couple of decent crosses before Townsend got on the end of the next one to volley in at the far post.

Despite having the better of the play, Spurs did not close out the game allowing Birmingham an attack down the right which gave O’Brien a near post header to pull a goal back. As the game went into stoppage time Olsen went down in the area trying to go round the keeper and was given a yellow card as the ref considered that he was trying to gain an advantage.

It was a comfortable victory which the score line did not reflect, as the home side had by far the majority of the play. There was a lack of goal-scoring chances with so much play being in the middle of the park. The visitors were doing more of a holding job in their half of the pitch. With our strength being down the wings, it is to Birmingham’s credit that it was only later in the game that we got into those areas more often, as most of our goals come from the wings.

This win moves Spurs up to third behind Villa and Leicester who both recorded 4-1 wins. Lets hope the first team have a similar easy task tomorrow. The next Academy game is away to MK Dons on the 8th December when I hope to see them get a better result than the home game which they lost despite being on top for most of the game. Before that there is a reserve game at Fulham on Tuesday and a trip to Brussels for the first team!

Ray

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