Saturday 6th December saw the U12 Boys from Division 4 play host to Division 3 Champions Beeston Park Rangers in the 3rd Round of the YEL Trophy. To get this far GSB had beaten Priory Celtic White who came runners up in Division 3 and had a walkover in the 2nd round.
Beeston Park Rangers came to Sherwood Academy having won 9 and drawn 2 of their games this season scoring 47 times and conceding 15. The boys all knew they were going to be in a tough game and would need to be at their best.
BPR kicked the game off on a pitch which can only be described as patchy in places – the sun had thawed half the pitch out and the rest was still fairly frozen even though the kick off was 1:30pm. GSB managed to get an early goal when Ben Morris collected the ball in the middle of the park and tried his luck from long range. The ball beat the keeper at the far post and GSB were in front after just 75 seconds.
Both teams were trying to play football on the difficult surface and Haydn McCaughey in midfield was winning nearly everything assisted by Elliott Hay. Both these two were controlling the midfield, enabling GSB to play some really good football. On 17 minutes a move starting down the left and switched out right to Asher Huffen saw Asher have a shot straight into the far corner to double GSB’s lead.
The boys weren’t stopping there and after 24 minutes, Asher again tried his luck from just outside the box and the ball sailed over the keepers head to put GSB 3-0 in front.
BPR did pull a goal back after 26 minutes of the first half when the striker had space on the edge of the box to fire a shot in and despite a good save from McKensie Withers, BPR reacted quicker and poked the ball home.
Half Time: GSB 3 BPR 1
Now I have never been one for much of a team talk at half time – at the end of the day these boys are only 11 years old and shouldn’t really need a Phil Brown style half time team talk. However one thing I did mention to the boys that whatever happened in the next 30 minutes they must not let their heads drop. They have been in front in nearly every game this season but let the lead slip twice so I asked them to try and not let that happen again.
It only took 4 minutes for GSB to get another goal and it was a great example of team work and moving the ball quickly. McKensie took a short goal kick to Mohammad at right back who played the ball across goal to emergency centre half, as the normal giant of a centre back Malachi Gregg was in London for the weekend, Drew Chapman. Drew calmly played the ball to Haydn McCaughey in the middle of the pitch. Haydn turned, exploited the space in front of him and played a great through ball for Ben Morris to latch onto and fire past the keeper into the far corner. It probably took 10 seconds from the our keepers foot to the goal, a great piece of football.
With just over 10 minutes of the match to go Ben Morris once again got onto a through ball and despite looking like getting too much of a touch on the ball he managed to poke the ball under the keeper to give GSB a 5-1 lead.
The players defended excellently for the remaining 10 minutes and came away with an excellent 5-1 win against a team who had not lost this season.
Full Time: GSB 5 BPR 1
Man of the Match: Haydn McCaughey. Haydn showed today that attitude, determination and great feet can beat height and strength. He was up against two big centre midfield players today but gave his all for the team, winning nearly every second ball in the middle of the park and setting up attacks for his team mates.
So GSB march into the Quarter Finals of the cup where thankfully they will not have to face Division 3 opposition but will most likely face Bingham Town Blue who they beat in the quarter finals on penalties two seasons ago. Lets hope they get the same result but hopefully not left so late!!
