Saturday 8th March saw GSB U12 Boys travel to Hucknall Rolls Royce to take on Rolls Royce Leisure Blue. This is the first time the two teams have met after Rolls Royce came down to Division 4 after Xmas this year.
The game was going to be played on a decent pitch but with a strong wind blowing from one goal to the other. GSB won the toss and decided to play against the wind in the first half.
Today saw the squad down to 11 players and the boys decided to play a 4-3-1 formation rather than their normal 3-1-3-1 formation. This was to give them better options when playing the ball out from the back with two full backs available for a short pass to help when playing against the wind.
The boys started well using the full backs from goal kicks which helped against the wind and the 3 midfield players were working hard.
GSB managed to get in front half way through the first half in a rather fortunate manner. James Abbott got the ball in midfield after he collected a short goal kick from one of the full backs. He carried the ball into the Rolls Royce half and played a through ball for Jacob Burley to chase down. The Rolls keeper got there first but his clearance hit his own defender and rolled towards his own goal. The ball hit the post and Jacob was left with a very easy tap in to give GSB the lead.
GSB again got lucky just before half time when a cross from the right wing from Asher Huffen was unfortunately put into his own net by a Rolls defender. Whilst last week against Arnold the boys were very unlucky, this week luck was certainly on their side.
Half Time: Rolls Royce Blue 0 GSB 2
The second half saw GSB play with the wind but again half time discussions were had about the difference that would make and what options they had that were different from the first half.
GSB did manage to get through on the Rolls goal a few times but the Rolls keeper made some good one on one saves and GSB were made to pay when with 10 minutes to go a Rolls player wriggled through some GSB challenges and fired the ball past McKensie to make it Rolls Royce 1 GSB 2.
Into the final few minutes, GSB attacked once again and forced a corner. This was cleared by Rolls to Drew Chapman in the left back position. Drew put a high ball back in towards the goal using the wind to his advantage and from the half way line he cleared the keeper to make it Rolls 1 GSB 3.
Final Score: Rolls Royce Leisure Blue 1 GSB 3
Man of the Match: Jacob Burley. Jacob has moved to a more central striking role since Xmas and is improving with every game and always has that knack of being in the right place at the right time to find the back of the net.
After last weeks amount of bad luck in the game against Arnold, this week certainly more than made up for it.
Next weeks sees Calverton Miners Welfare Red come to play GSB in what is sure to be another very close game.
