Premier Academy League, Group B
         Spurs Lodge, Chigwell, Essex.
      Saturday 13th November 2010, 11am k.o.

           SPURS     v   CARDIFF CITY 
       (White/Blue)       (All Blue)
           4-4-2             4-4-2

            1(1)              2(0) 


     Jonathon Miles  1 David Richards
      Jack Barthram  2 Adam Davies
         Daniel Day  3 Adedeji Oshilala
    Laste Dombaxe(C) 4 Mamadou Diallo
      Kevin Stewart  5 Alex Evans
      Ramil Sheriff  6 Ben Nugent
       Alex McQueen  7 Kevin Saint Luce
     Callum Tapping  8 Ibrahim Farah(C)
Shaquille Coulthirst 9 Nathaniel Jarvis
         Jack Munns 10 Jordan Carter
     Darren McQueen 11 Josh Powell

   Freddie Champion 12 Sameth Al Basith
          (3)77Mins.   (10)63Mins.
      Jordan Archer 13 Reece Ottley
     Ruban Lameiras 14 Jesse Darko
         (2)60Mins.    (9)63Mins.
         Grant Ward 15 Luke Jones
         (7)66Mins.    (7)79Mins.
                    16 Steffan Jones

Scorers:-
     Dombaxe 20 pen    Saint Luce 51
                       Farah 70

Booked:-
     Dombaxe 90+5(UGC) Oshilala 90+5(UGC)

Coach:-
      A. Inglethorpe   N. Ardley

Referee:- A. Street

Spurs lined up with Stewart and Sheriff in front of Miles in goal with Barthram at right back and Day on the left. Dombaxe and Tapping started in the centre of midfield with Alex McQueen on the right and his cousin Darren on the left with Munns in support of Coulthirst up front.

After a minute's silence, Spurs kicked off attacking the South end using the width of the pitch with both McQueens supported by the full backs. An early corner saw Oshilala head wide as the "Bluebirds" counter-attacked quickly. Saint Luce got through but his first effort was blocked and his follow-up was saved. Saint Luce was the biggest danger to the Spurs defence and he got through again but was thwarted by Miles. Coulthirst was having a battle with the big Nugent but got free to fire over. Spurs opened the scoring after Barthram got down the right and drove into the area only to be brought down for a penalty. Dombaxe took the kick and drove it to the keeper's left. The keeper saved a header by Coulthirst from a corner before Saint Luce fired wide. Tapping broke from deep but put his effort over the bar.

There were no changes for the start of the second half as Spurs looked to increase their lead. Coulthirst fired wide before having his next effort saved by Richards. The visitors broke away and Saint Luce drove his shot past Miles having left the defenders in his wake.

Cardiff gained confidence and began to play more open football with the game becoming more stretched. Saint Luce fired wide before Coulthirst saw his effort fly wide. Inglethorpe took off Barthram for Lameiras with Alex McQueen dropping to full back. The young Portuguese midfielder could not find much space in the centre as the visitors pushed more upfield bringing on fresh strikers and trying to force Spurs onto the backfoot.

Inglethorpe replaced Alex McQueen with another U-16 - Ward - to play wide on the right. This was Ward's first appearance at this level and while he has a good turn of pace, he was a little unsure of himself. His first contribution was a run and cross that failed to find a white shirt and his second was to give the ball away with a slack pass that led to the second Cardiff goal. The visitors picked up the ball in the middle of the pitch and drove forward into the Spurs' half and played it to the right post where Farah came in and dinked it over Miles into the net.

Champion came on to give more support to Lameiras in the centre but the visitors were happy to contain the home side and to close the game down. Champion did get a chance that he fired wide. Spurs were getting frustrated and their inexperience showed as they lost their shape pushing forward in search of a goal. This led to a few fiery exchanges and during one Dombaxe got involved which resulted in him and Oshilala getting booked.

Overall this was a fairly even game which could have gone either way. We lost out due to lack of experience more than being out-played. This does bode well for later as there are some potentially good players in this years squad. They are getting the experience sooner that I would have expected and it looks like it will take a while for them to be ready to challenge properly at this level. This season is going to be a learning period for these lads but I have already seen signs that there are good skills in there. Next season not only will they be ready but some of the teams will be replacing their older players with new intakes. There is only one team below us in the group but it nice to know that the gooners are also suffering this season.

Ray