Saturday 22nd November saw GSB U12 Boys play host to Ruddington Colts at Sherwood Academy. Ruddington sat 1 point above GSB in the table having played one game more. As this was Ruddington’s final league game, it was a case of winner takes all.
The pitch was very heavy and puddles had to be kicked away from one goal mouth and the centre circle before play could start.
As expected on a very heavy pitch players were finding it hard to stand up never mind play football but all the boys deserve credit, from both teams, for trying to play football on the ground.
It took GSB 5 minutes to get themselves in front when Ashton Graham played the ball down the left wing for Drew Chapman to chase after. Drew got to the ball and delivered an excellent cross for Ben Morris to steer home.
Ruddington got a free kick about 10 metres outside the GSB area and their player let fly with a shot which was too high for McKensie Withers in goal to get to and it went in off the underside of the bar.
GSB came back again and after another great cross from the left by Drew, Jacob Burley got on the end of it and gave GSB a 2-1 lead.
Ruddington came back strong again and a long ball over the top saw thr striker touch the ball wide of the GSB goal and with McKensie Withers struggling to get back in to his goal due to the conditions of the pitch the very tall striker fired a shot home from an acute angle to make it 2-2.
Half Time: GSB 2 Ruddington 2
The second half started in the same vein as the first and after some good work on the right hand side by Ben Morris, he fired in a cross which Jacob Burley did very well to get on the end of to make it 3-2 to GSB.
Once again Ruddington came back strong and after a ball was delivered into the box and not cleared by GSB, the Ruddington player did very well to take a touch and fire the ball into the back of the net to make it 3-3.
The game was now 10 minutes from the end and promotion was there for either team to grab.
Ruddington once again won a free kick on the edge of the area and the same player let fly with a shot which once again was too high in the goal for McKensie Withers to give Ruddington the advantage.
GSB pressed forwards trying to get back into the game but it was Ruddington who scored again just before full time after a goal kick fell straight to their centre forward who stroked home to make it 5-3 to Ruddington.
Final Score: GSB 3 Ruddington 5
With one game to go now, GSB can not make the top 2. This is a very harsh and cruel lesson for the boys as in 9 games of football they have only been behind for about a total of 15 minutes, having lost 2 games, both from winning positions.
Man of the Match: Jacob Burley. Jacob is growing in confidence and not only did he score twice but he is adding the defensive side of his game too which is great to see. Well done JB.
Next week the boys travel to West Bridgford for a friendly against a side second in Division 2 (GSB are 3rd in Division 4) so another tough game next week.
