Premier U-18 Southern League 2017-18
         Hotspur Way, Bulls Cross, Enfield
        Saturday 26th August 2017, 11.30am

              SPURS     v  BRIGHTON & H.A.
           (White/Blue)     (Blue/White)
             4-1-4-1           4-2-3-1

               0(0)            1(0)

     Jonathan De Bie(C) 1 Tom McGill(C)
         Matthew Lock   2 Hamish Morrison
          Tariq Hinds   3 Haydon Roberts
         Jamie Bowden   4 Tareq Shihab
      Moroyin Omolabi   5 Kipras Kazukolovas
Brooklyn Lyons-Foster   6 Ben Clark-Eden
      Dilan Markanday   7 Ryan Longman
       Jamie Reynolds   8 Teddy Hoare
        Reo Griffiths   9 Danny Cashman
     Armande Shashoua  10 Issac Hutchinson
    Phoenix Patterson  11 Alex Cochrane

        Paris Maghoma  12 Stefan Ljubicic
            (8)69Mins
     Joshua Oluwayemi  13 George Bentley
      Jeremie Mukendi  14 Charlie Ferguson
           (11)83Mins     (11)85Mins
          Max Statham  15 Tyrese Fornah
                          (10)79Mins
       Rodel Richards  16 Columbus Ibeh
            (9)77Mins     (7)74Mins

Scorer:-
                          Shihab 90

Booked:–
      Omolabi 38(Foul)    Hoare 68(Foul)
      Bowden 85(KBA)

Coach:-
          Scott Parker    Mark Beard

Referee:– Isaac Seale
Assistants:– Zoltan Konkoly & Jamie Eacott

It was a bright warm morning for the visit of unbeaten Brighton and Hove Albion to Hotspur Way. Brighton beat Norwich 1-0 away last week while Spurs went down 4-2 at Leicester. Last season Spurs had a comfortable 4-0 win over the "Seagulls" with Lock and Patterson starting that game and Reynolds introduced as a sub.

Spurs lined up with De Bie in goal behind Omolabi and Lyons-Foster with Lock at right back and Hinds on the left. Bowden anchored the midfield with Reynolds and Shashoua ahead of him flanked by Markanday on the right and Patterson on the left in support of Griffiths up front.

Spurs kicked off the first half attacking the North end and had an early chance when Hinds had a shot saved by McGill followed quickly by Reynolds playing in Griffths for an effort that was also saved. Brighton were looking to play passing football as well and were playing a high line to squeeze the play and put pressure on Spurs. With Spurs also keeping a high line the play was squeezed into the middle third making it very crowded with little space to actually play football.

Kazukolova headed over at the visitors' first corner before Reynolds fired wide at the other end. Griffths drew a save to win a corner from which Omolabi laid the ball back for Bowden to hit wide. Omolabi was booked trying to recover the ball on the edge of the area. From the free kick Hoare struck the far post before it was cleared at the expense of a corner. When the corner was not cleared Longman forced De Bie to save and a minute later the same player fired wide.

Markanday got the better of Roberts to play the ball to Patterson who set up Griffiths but the striker fired wide. Cochrane crossed for Longman to force another save by De Bie right at the end of the half.

Neither side made any changes for the start of the second half which continued in the same way as the first. Markanday put in a cross that Griffths just failed to meet while Cashman put an overhead kick just wide. Another free kick caused trouble in the Spurs area with Cochrane hitting the post at the second attempt. Hoare was booked for a tackle on Reynolds as the midfielder looked as if he had got free. Reynolds could not continue and was replaced by Maghoma who had an effort wide.

Griffiths had a header saved from a Lock cross before Spurs made their second change taking off the striker for Richard. Richard exchanged passes with Patterson but his effort was blocked for a corner. Lock was beginning to get down the right and his pull back for Markanday saw the winger cut inside and curl an effort in that struck the crossbar.

Spurs' last change saw Mukendi replace Patterson. Bowden was booked for kicking the ball away after Maghoma had been penalised for a foul. Going into the last minute De Bie saved Hoare's effort from a corner pushing the ball onto the bar. From the resulting corner Brighton scored when Kazukolova turned the ball back at the far post for Shihab to fire in. With Spurs pushing forward they nearly conceded again when Cashman played in Ibeh but De Bie saved.

This was an even game which could have gone either way but the visitors got the reward for closing the game down preventing Spurs' flowing football and keeping the pressure on for the whole 90 minutes. With little room to manoeuvre neither side were able to string passes together. Spurs were not able to use the width of the pitch until very later in the game as Brighton defended well in those areas. It looked like it was going to be a draw as both sides more or less cancelled each other out so it must have been sickening for the Spurs players to lose at the death.

In two weeks' time Spurs travel to Southampton who lost 2-0 at Fulham. I will be in Liverpool for the Everton game so will miss the U-18s. The next game will be on the 23rd September when Aston Villa will be the visitors at Hotspur Way.

Ray

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