FA Youth Cup, 3rd Round 
       St. Mary’s, Southampton 
  Wednesday 12th December 2007, 7pm

    SOUTHAMPTON   V   SPURS    
    (Red/White)      (All Yellow)                     
       4-4-2          4-4-2
 
        0(0)           1(0)
 
  Andrey Pernecky 1 Jamie Butler
       Sam Argent 2 Sam Cox
     Joseph Mills 3 Daniel Hutchins
     Ian Jones(C) 4 Yaser Kasim
    Aarran Racine 5 Yuri Berchiche
   Jeffrey Imudia 6 Calum Butcher
   Kayne Mclaggon 7 David Hutton
    Callum McNish 8 Jake Livermore(C)
 Matthew Paterson 9 Alex Olsen
     Jamie White 10 Danny Rose
Michel Dolinajec 11 Dean Parrett


 Lukas Stiklakis 12 Jonathan Obika
      (8)70Mins.    (9)89Mins.
    Matej Rondos 13 James Dalton
     Garyn Preen 14 Ryan Mason
     (11)46Mins.    (7)89Mins.
  Ryan Tafazolli 15 Takura Mtandari
      (7)83Mins.
      Ben Reeves 16 Kyle Fraser-Allen

Coach:-
      D.Hockaday    A.Inglethorpe

Scorers:-
                    Olsen 60

Booked:-
     Mclaggon 17    Kasim 42
       Argent 40
       Imudia 42
     Paterson 53
       Imudia 63 – Red Card

Attendance:- Approx 600

Referee:- C.Powell
Assistants:- I.Bardsley, K.Horrigan, D.Gregory

It was a cold evening for our opening cup tie at Southampton’s St. Mary’s Stadium. We had played them earlier this season and won 6-0, but they have done well since and are currently second in their group.

Spurs lined up with Butcher and Berchiche at the back with Cox at right back and Hutchins on the left. Livermore and Kasim sat in front of them in centre midfield with Hutton on the right and Parrett on the left ahead of Rose who played behind Olsen in a diamond formation.

Spurs defended the right end in the first half having to contend with a couple of early right wing crosses and found a resilient home defence which made it hard to play their normal game.

Rose hit the first chance wide before Racine put a long range effort wide for the Saints which was followed by a shot saved by Butler from McNish who also put another wide. After fifteen minutes Hutton took a free kick from just outside the area and hit the crossbar with Butcher heading the rebound wide.

Butler had to save from Paterson who was a problem all evening. After Mclaggon was booked for preventing a free kick being taken, Rose put another effort wide. Parrett got past Argent and struck a shot that was deflected by Jones to the near post where Pernecky reacted quickly to turn it over. Olsen fired wide before Paterson made Butler save his shot and then mis-kicked when free ten yards out. Jones nearly scored with a header which Butler half saved and Hutton cleared on the line.

Parrett got the better of Argent, but the full back pulled him back by the arm which the ref considered worth a caution. More good play saw Parrett cross to the far post for Olsen to nod down, but Rose hit the ball wide. McNish then drove the ball in which Butler could only parry and Livermore blocked the follow-up. Kasim was booked for a foul during the build-up which was delivered by the ref when he stopped play due to Imuria fouling Olsen as he made a break forward. Imuria was booked straight after although I did not see a card shown.

Southampton made one change for the second half which was delayed by their late return to the pitch. Rose was drifting more to the left and soon brought a save from Pernecky, following that with a cross-shot that went wide of the far post. Berchiche hit a free kick wide from the right side as Spurs began to have more of the play.

Paterson needlessly tripped Butcher to become the fourth Southampton player booked. Within a minute Pernecky had to save from Kasim and Rose, with Berchiche heading the following corner wide. Rose then found himself in space and he quickly played the ball behind Jones for Olsen to run onto, going into the area. The keeper blocked his first shot but was unable to stop him netting the rebound.

Imuria then went in hard on Parrett and was shown a yellow which was quickly followed by a red which stunned the crowd as like me most had not seen the first. With a man advantage, Spurs now had more space to play the ball with Rose going wide again and Olsen putting the ball in the net, but he was ruled to have gone too early. Livermore drove in from the edge of the area, and Pernecky saved. Hutton then played a free kick short to Livermore, who worked his way along the edge of the area before firing in a shot that was blocked by Rose.

After White hit a shot over, Spurs were content to keep possession for the rest of the game, despite Southampton bringing on another tall striker and pushing for an equaliser. To help waste time Inglethorpe made a double substitution bringing on Obika and Mason for Hutton and Olsen with the fourth official thinking that Parrett was going off. With the game going into stoppage time, Obika put a good chance over the bar.

This was a tough game and not just because of the physical nature of the opposition, as the home side created a number of good chances during the first half before Spurs gradually took control. After the sending off they sat back and contained Southampton, content with passing the ball around making ten to twenty passes before the home side could intercept. Each pass was being cheered by the small band of Spurs supporters. Paterson won most of the aerial balls and drifted wide to out-jump Cox who was giving away a lot of height.

Spurs are at home in the next round when they will play Chester, who beat York 3-0.

The U-18’s will be playing Coventry at the Lodge on Saturday which I will miss as I will be returning to the south coast. (Ed: I'll be at Pompey too!)

Ray

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