Premier Academy League South
        Charlton Training Ground, 
          Sparrows Lane, SE 9   
     Saturday 15th March 2008, 11am
 
     CHARLTON     v       SPURS
   (Red/White)         (All White)
      4-4-2               4-4-2
 
       1(1)                2(0)
 
 Callum Christie  1 Oscar Jansson
        Sam Long  2 Adam Smith
      Jack Clark  3 Yuri Berchiche
  Alex Stavrinou  4 Yaser Kasim(C)
  Rhys Coleman(C) 5 Takura Mtandari
 Taylor Sinfield  6 Calum Butcher
   Callum O'Shea  7 David Hutton
Christoper Solly  8 Daniel Hutchins
     Ben Godfrey  9 Alec Olsen
   Lewis Perkins 10 Ryan Mason
   Ruairi Harkin 11 Jonathan Obika
 
  Mikkel
  Rygaard-Jensen 12 Kyle Fraser-Allen
      (4)60Mins.    (7)84Mins.
      Jack Binks 13 Jamie Butler
 Steven 
 Lozano-Calderon 14 Sam Cox
      (10)75Mins.   (7)75Mins.
      Harry Pell 15 Sol Asajile
      (7)83Mins.             
 
Coaches:-
       D.Matthews   A.Inglethorpe
 
Scorers:-
       Godfrey 5    Mason 50, 51   

Booked:-
  Solly 58(Clash)   Kasim 52(Foul),
		    58(Clash)-Red Card

Referee:- P.Knight
Assistants:- L.Lungarella, M.El-Haj

It was an overcast sky with the ground wet but not too cold for the eighty odd souls who came to watch this match between teams from the two southern groups.

Spurs lined up with Butcher and Mtandari at the back with Smith at right back and Berchiche on the left. Hutchins joined Kasim in central midfield with Hutton on the right and Obika on the left. Mason played just behind Olsen up front.

Spurs kicked off attacking the left end and soon showed that they were the more skilful players with Obika displaying a wide variety of tricks on the left as he gave Long a hard time, and setting Olsen up for a strike that Christie saved. The "Addicks" soon began to drop back and defend in numbers relying on the pace of O'Shea to counter-attack. From one of these raids down the right O'Shea crossed for Godfrey to rise highest and head inside the far post.

From then on it was Spurs doing most of the attacking with Obika and Berchiche getting down the left and supplying numerous crosses for players in the centre without anyone getting the final touch. Obika had a shot saved and Mason went wide with Hutchins' speculative effort well over. Janssen saved from Godfrey before Olsen forced a save from Christie. As half-time approached Charlton should have increased their lead when O'Shea found space at the far post, only to miss-hit his effort. Christie saved a long range effort from Smith and Hutchins put his attempt over.

Neither side made any changes for the second half and Spurs went close just after the restart when Hutton headed wide at the far post. Obika went down the left and cut inside to play in Olsen on the edge of the area. Olsen's volley came back off the far post and Mason reacted quickest to put it into the net.

Spurs regained possession quickly from the restart and Obika and Kasim worked their way down the left before Kasim laid the ball into the path of Mason who struck the ball from the edge of the area into the far side of the goal. The home side tried to strike back quickly but Kasim stopped O'Shea at the expense of a yellow card. When Spurs failed to clear a corner the ball was played into the middle for Godfrey to head against the outside of the post. It then got a bit heated when Kasim clashed with Solly in the centre-circle with Solly claiming he was punched. With all the players getting involved the referee booked both Solly and Kasim. Kasim was sent off for the second yellow and the visitors had to play the rest of the game with ten players.

Charlton brought on Rygaard-Jensen to spray passes around in an effort to exploit the extra man but Spurs showed that with a man less they were a match for the home side. Long put an effort over and Godfrey fired wide before making Janssen save. Charlton added some pace with Lozano-Calderon and Spurs added a more defensive player in Cox. Despite being a man light, Spurs continued to attack when they could with Berchiche and Smith supporting down the wings. Obika and Fraser-Allen (when he came on) continually caused the Charlton defence problems taking the initiative from the home side.

This was in truth an easy win for Spurs and stretches their winning run to ten games. The individual skills of the players were better than Charlton and only the work rate they showed kept them in the game. Last year Spurs took a two goal lead before being pegged back. This time the home side took the lead but were never going to hold on.

Spurs move into second spot on goal difference as Leicester were held to a 5-5 draw last week with a game in hand. Villa lead by 7 points having also played a game more. The Academy side do not have a game next Saturday and will be at Portsmouth on the 29th. Tuesday will see the Reserves playing Birmingham at the ground of Solihull Moors.

Ray

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