FA Premier Academy League – South
      Spurs Lodge, Luxborough Lane, Chigwell
         Saturday 27th October 2007, 11am

             SPURS      v      MK DONS  
          (All White)        (All Black)
             4-4-2              4-4-2
 
              0(0)               2(1)
 
            ee Butcher  1 Laurie Walker
            Adam Smith  2 Miles Mitchell-Coop(C)
        Yuri Benchiche  3 Sam Collins
       Yasser Kasim (C) 4 David King
           Chris Casey  5 Oliver Thorne
       Takura Mtandari  6 Tom Flanagan
          David Hutton  7 Tom Williams
       Daniel Hutchins  8 Daniel Delderfield  
            Alex Olsen  9 Sam Baldock
            Danny Rose 10 Stephaine Koffi
        Jonathan Obika 11 Daniel Powell

     Kyle Fraser-Allen 12 Josh Cryan
             (9)65Mins
          James Dalton 13  
            Ryan Mason 14 
            (10)46Mins 
        Callum Butcher 15 Troy Fardon
               Sam Cox 16 Kurt Fox
             (4)79Mins

Coach:-
           J.McDermott    M. Dove

Scorers:-                Flanagan 17
                         Baldock  79 

Bookings:-
  Hutchins 47(Late)      Baldock 52(Kicked ball away)
                         Koffi 84(Dissent) 
Ref:-  Mr. R.MacKay
Assistants:- D.Cross, T.Hemmings

It was a dull and overcast morning for the first match since the fall out of Thursday. It was not as cold as earlier mornings and a good crowd gathered to watch high riding Spurs take on the lowly Dons. The crowd was swelled by a contingent from the Denmark fans club as well as a Norwegian reporter. There was also a large crowd of media people at the gate hoping for a story. Academy manager John McDermott took control of the team following Alex Inglethorpe moving up to assist Clive Allen with the first team.

Spurs lined up with Casey making his first start alongside Mtandari at the back with Smith at right back and Berchiche at left back. Kasim had Hutchins in the centre of midfield with Hutton on the right flank and Obika on the left. Rose was making his first start in support of Olsen up front.

The visitors kicked off attacking the North end. They were a big physical side that got stuck in to prevent Spurs from passing the ball. Having beaten the group leaders Villa last week they had plenty of confidence. Spurs made most of the early running with Olsen testing Walker inside five minutes. Rose was put through in the tenth minute but his low drive was turned around the post for a corner. The corner was taken by Obika who found the head of Hutton in the middle of the six yard area. His header was blocked on the line. Two minutes later and Walker saved at the feet of Olsen.

Baldock forced a save from Butcher with the Dons' first attempt at goal just before they took the lead. Hutchins had conceded a free kick over 25yds out. Flanagan hit the ball so hard that Butcher only just got a hand to it as it flew into the net. Hutton then had another header blocked on the line from a corner. Walker again had to come out to save at the feet of Olsen who got a little nudge from the chasing defender. This resulted in Olsen and Walker needing attention before the game continued. Hutton took the next corner which found Mtandari at the near post, but his header went over.

King found space in the Spurs area but headed over before Olsen fired wide. Hutton then hit a free kick just over before the last chance of the half fell to Olsen. He failed to connect to a cross from Obika.

Mason started the second half in place of Rose. The Dons had decided to sit back on the first half lead with the keeper continuing to take his time over his kicks. Their back line pushed up nearly to the halfway line and set two banks of four in a crowded midfield to frustrate the home side. The congested area made the Spurs passing game difficult with many passes failing to reach a team-mate. Coupled with the close attention that the players were getting, Spurs lost their way and the game became very scrappy which the ref failed to clamp down on. With all the pulling and pushing, tripping and blocking that was going on the ref booked two players for kicking the ball away and dissent.

Their coach did a good job of organising the team as the solid defensive play stopped Spurs from finding any rhythm and the passing got worse. Fraser-Allen came on for Olsen on the right with Hutton moving across to the left and Obika coming inside. I think the idea was to use pace to break through the Dons rear guard which did provide some chances. I would have liked to see more diagonal balls over the top as many of the attempted through passes were cut out.

Hutton got down the left and crossed low but Fraser-Allen could not connect at the far post. Kasim fired in a loose ball from outside the area which Walker held comfortably. The killer blow was struck when Koffi got behind the defence and played in Baldock to beat Butcher with a rising drive.

Kasim was replaced by Cox with Hutton taking the armband. Spurs pushed players forward in an attempt to break through and Smith fired wide in one of the few chances to created as time ran out.

This was not a good performance from a Spurs side with plenty of skill against one of the poorest sides in their group. The visitors came with a game plan which sought to nullify that advantage by compacting the play into a small area of the pitch to make passing harder. The physical style of play has not prevented Spurs passing game in other matches but by shaking the players up it made our passing less accurate in a tighter space. With Obika, Hutton and Fraser-Allen up front more use of the diagonal ball over the middle might have been the better tactic. It was good to see David Hutton given the captains armband as he was our best player today.

Next week the U-18’s will be away at Cardiff City before the next home game when we entertain Watford.

Ray

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