Premier Academy League South
      Spurs Lodge, Chigwell, Essex
      Saturday 1st March 2008, 12am
 
      SPURS         v     LEICESTER
    (All White)          (Blue/White)
      4-4-2                4-4-2
 
       3(1)                2(1)
 
     Oscar Jansson  1  Carl Pentney(C)
   Takura Mtandari  2  Luke O’Neil
   Daniel Hutchins  3  Joe Cobb
     Yaser Kasim(C) 4  Lee Cox
    Yuri Berchiche  5  Scott Gardner
     Calum Butcher  6  Lathaniel Turner
      David Hutton  7  Robbie Burns
      Dean Parrett  8  Andy King
        Alex Olsen  9  Craig King
        Ryan Mason 10  Elliott Chamberlain
    Jonathan Obika 11  Ryan Beswick
 
        Adam Smith 12  Steven Howard
         (5)60Mins 
       Lee Butcher 13       
Kyle Fraser-Allen  14  Marcus Watson
        (10)87Mins
          Sam Cox  15  Billy McKay
        (4)60Mins     (10)46Mins.
       Sol Asajile 16       
 
Coaches:-
     A.Inglethorpe     S.Beaglehole

Scorers:-
     Obika 26          Chamberlain 36
     Hutton 74 pen.    Beswick 48
     Mason 77  

Booked:-
  Butcher 80(Foul)     Burns 70
                      (Kicked ball away)

Referee:- A.Degnarain
 

It was a sunny morning but with a chilly wind blowing down the pitch from left to right. A good sized crowd turned up for what should have been the battle for second place in the table. It did turn into a battle of two committed teams.

Spurs lined up with Berchiche and Butcher at the back with Mtandari at right back and Hutchins on the left. Kasim and Parrett lined up in the centre of midfield with Hutton on the right wing and Obika on the left. Mason partnered Olsen up front.

Spurs kicked off attacking the South goal but the Foxes (with the wind behind them) closed down very quickly with physical challenges, and gained large amounts of the ball. Beswick fired wide and Burns drew a save from Jansson with Chamberlain also putting a chance over the bar with only a Mason long range effort over the bar as Spurs struggled to make an impression.

Spurs took the lead against the run of play when a diagonal ball found Obika unmarked on the left. He drew the keeper before slotting home. The goal stunned the visitors who gave ground to Spurs who came close to increasing their lead when Pentney saved Obika’s near post header from a Hutton corner under the bar. Things were looking better for Spurs as they stroked the ball around until Kasim gave the ball away and Beswick ran through the left channel cutting the ball back for Chamberlain to beat Jansson easily. King fired wide and Beswick put a chance over before Burns shot was saved by the keeper.

Leicester brought on McKay who showed more skill attacking the defence and within three minutes of the restart caused Spurs to concede a penalty when Hutchins caught Beswick just inside the area. Jansson saved Beswick’s kick but could not stop his follow-up. Jansson then saved from Burns before Hutchins went up field in support and fired over.

Parrett was beginning to come out on top in the midfield battle and he headed over from a corner. Burns again forced Jansson to save and Cox fired wide. Inglethorpe made a double change by sending on Smith and Cox for Berchiche and Kasim. Cox went directly into midfield with Mtandari moving into the centre to allow Smith to go to right back. Gardner had his effort saved from a free kick before Hutton clipped the the angle of the far post with his free kick.

The tide was beginning to swing back in favour of the home side as Smith was making runs down the right. Hutton collected the ball just outside the area and took it left before O’Neil tripped him as he entered the corner of the area. Hutton put his penalty kick low into the right corner of the net to bring the scores level. Spurs completed the turnaround when Obika got past Turner on the right and drove forward before squaring the ball to Mason to drive home.

The ref began to get quite finicky after booking Butcher for a late tackle on King awarding three free kicks in quick succession for hand ball by Spurs players where it looked more ball to hand. Mason fired wide before he was replaced by Fraser-Allen who provided pace for an out ball as Leicester put in a push for a goal. King drew a save from Jansson in stoppage time but spurs held on.

This victory should have seen Spurs go above Leicester into second but both Villa and Leicester played and won last week so Spurs again closed the gap on second place to two points with a game in hand. Leicester again provided strong opposition but Spurs found that their weakness was in the full back areas as in the first meeting of these two. Villa have 58pts. from 24, Leicester have 53 from 24 and spurs have 51 from 23. With the game at Watford still to be arranged our next fixture is away to Charlton on the 15th March.

Ray

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