Saturday 13th September saw the U12 Boys team play host to Clifton AW Blues at Sherwood Academy. Clifton AW Blues came runners up in Division 5 last year whilst GSB finished 7th in Division 3. However due to many new teams joining the YEL in the top two divisions, GSB had been placed down in Division 4 and as any team who finished top or second last season in their league were automatically promoted, Clifton were promoted to Division 4. However in reality these two teams had finished 15 places apart at the end of last season and unfortunately this was very much in evidence on the day.
GSB were quickly into the game with Billy ‘Bills’ Housden opening the scoring in the 2nd minute after a very determined run through the Clifton defence and into the penalty area.
GSB quickly doubled their lead after some more battling by Bills saw the ball fall to James ‘Abs’ Abbott, who applied the finished.
James ‘Planty’ Plant got on the score sheet for the second time in the opening two matches when his long range speculative effort went under the Clifton keeper.
Soon after Drew ‘Chappers’ Chapman picked the ball up inside his own half on the left wing and beat two Clifton players before getting clear on the last defender. He got round his man and applied a great chipped finish to make it 4-0 to GSB.
Not long after coming off the bench, Carter ‘Pates’ Pateman had his shot saved by the Clifton keeper but fellow sub Ben ‘Mozza’ Morris was on hand to make it 5 for GSB.
The roles were soon reversed when Mozza had a shot saved only for Pates to put the rebound in to make it 6-0.
Just before half time, Haydn ‘H’ McCaughey playing centre half for the first time ever today, got in front of the Clifton striker and spotted Abs out wide on the left. He played a delightful through ball which Abs collected in his stride and pushed into the Clifton box before beating the keeper with a shot into the far corner.
Half Time: GSB 7 Clifton AW Blue 0
More changes were made at half time with players swapping positions and Pates, who was now playing in right midfield, beat his man and crossed for Mozza to collect his second.
Jacob ‘JB’ Burley became the 7th GSB to get on the scoresheet as he made it 9-0 after a great diagonal ball from the middle of the pitch by H.
Clifton did pull a goal back after a long ball over the top saw their striker one on one against McKensie ‘Macca Pacca’ Withers and he calmed took it round him to give Clifton a goal back.
More substitutions saw Kieran ‘KP Nuts’ Parrott move from his usual defensive position to play as striker and he got his name on the scoresheet for only the second time ever to make it 10-1 to GSB.
Elliott ‘Els’ Hay became the ninth GSB player to score when he burst through the Clifton defence from midfield and finished the rebound off the keeper.
Mozza had the ball on the right wing and crossed the ball which unfortunately hit a Clifton defender and went in the goal to make it 12-1.
Mozza then managed to get his hat trick when he finished from long range with the last kick of the game.
Final Score: GSB 13 Clifton AW Blue 1
Man of the Match: Billy ‘Bills’ Housden. He started the game really well and showed great determination which set up this result for GSB.
As mentioned at the start of this report, the gap between these two teams really showed today and despite making many changes to the positions the boys usually play in, the goals never stopped coming, which is probably shown by the fact that 9 out of the 12 players playing today scored.
A special mention must go to Clifton who never seemed to give up, never started arguing and got on well with the game despite the score line. In fact the only arguing seemed to come from some of the GSB players as one or two players started to become a little too selfish in pursuit of personal milestones rather than being a true team player.
Next week sees the boys travel to Chetwyn Barracks to take on Toton Tigers Orange who have also won their first two games, so a real top of the table clash. One that will hopefully prove more of a test, and therefore a learning opportunity, than this game.
