Premier Academy League, Group B
          Spurs Lodge, Chigwell, Essex.
         Wednesday 4th May 2011, 1pm k.o.

           SPURS     v   LEICESTER CITY 
       (White/Blue)       (Blue/White)

           4-3-3             4-4-2

            1(1)              0(0) 

      Jordan Archer  1 Rajaan Gill
     Callum Tapping  2 Alie Seysay
       Alex McQueen  3 Kevin Knight
     Massimo Luongo  4 Jack Warburton
       James Yeboah  5 Joe Jones
      Kevin Stewart  6 George Taft
     Kenneth McEvoy  7 Shane Byrne
       Dominic Ball  8 Liam Moore(C)
Shaquille Coulthirst 9 Tom Hopper
       Jack Munns(C)10 Matt Robinson
       John Bostock 11 Oliver Norburn

    Freddy Champion 12 Harry Panayioutou 
         (8)88Mins.    (10)56Mins.
     Jonathon Miles 13 Connor Brennan
      Saul Williams 14 Joe Dodoo
         (9)86Mins.
      William Ekong 15 Ellis Tebbutt
                    16 Sam Beale
                       (4)77Mins.

Scorers:-
         Bostock 38 

Coach:-
     A. Inglethorpe    S. Beaglehole

Spurs lined up with Yeboah and Stewart at the back with Tapping at right back and McQueen on the left. Luongo started in the centre of midfield with McEvoy on the right flank and Munns to his left. New boy Ball started up front with Bostock on his right and Coulthirst to his left, but Ball soon dropped more into midfield.

Spurs defended the North goal in the first half but were soon on the attack.Luongo prompted from the middle and McEvoy made runs down the right. Munns started slowly and tended to drift in from the left allowing McQueen to raid down the left to link up with Coulthirst. The players did not look comfortable with this new system and kept drifting into a more 4-4-2 formation.

Ball played in Coulthirst for a chance that he fired wide. Luongo, pushing up in support of the attack, drove wide. There were not many chances in this game as the defences of both teams played well. Bostock drove in a cross that was cleared for a corner just before McEvoy got to it at the far post. The "Foxes" had largely used long balls out of defence to their tall strikers to fight for, which they did have some success. From one, Norburn picked up a loose ball but fired over. When the visitors gave the ball away deep in their own half it fell to Bostock who had plenty of space in front of him and was able to pick his spot although Gill got his hand to the ball as it went in for the opening goal. The last chance of the half fell to Bostock who drove over.

Spurs started the second half with Coulthirst playing centrally and Bostock dropping into midfield which made the side look better and with the re-inforced midfield more of the play was held in the visitors half of the pitch trying to use the pace of Coulthirst.

Leicester had the first chance when Norburn let fly from 20 yards, but Archer made a good save, diving to his right. Bostock saw his effort pushed away for a corner. From the corner by Munns, Coulthirst headed wide. Coulthirst was wide again a minute later and shortly after fired over. Panayioutou was wide at the far post winning a corner before Bostock played a lovely through ball to Munns who found himself one on one with the keeper but could not beat him. Coulthirst got through again but hit his effort into the side netting at the near post.

Inglethorpe made two changes as the game was getting close to the end, replacing Coulthirst with Williams, and then Champion came on for Ball. With the visitors pushing forward in search of an equaliser Bostock played in Luongo running through the middle and he passed to McEvoy for a shot that went wide. As Spurs were looking to see out the game Norburn had a last effort that flew wide.

In a game of few chances most fell to Spurs and Coulthirst, mainly in the second half. It was not as close as the scoreline suggests but with so few chances the home side should feel the happier. Ball did okay for his first match and I think that it was tiredness that saw him going off. Luongo was again the best player on the field but Bostock showed some good touches and you expected him to do more.

This was the last Academy game and sees us finish 4th in the group. Hopefully they can improve on this next season as they get stronger and more experienced. Some of the U-16's have come in and played well so I will look forward to seeing more of them. I will keep my ears open for friendly games such as the one planned for two weeks time when they entertain a Rwandan youth side. I understand that we will be taking part in the Amsterdam Cup but have no details as yet.

Ray