Match Report - Iver Heath Youth vs Britwell United - 11 Sep 2005

My View From The Side

Iver Heath Youth 1 - Britwell United 2
Sunday 11th September

The very first competitive match for the newly formed Iver Heath Youth Football Club produced a disappointing score line for the home team in a narrow 2-1 defeat at Iver Heath Recreation ground.

Though the result did not go Iver Heath’s way the performance of the players suggests that the coming season should be an improvement on previous years as Iver Minors.

With a solid all round performance from the team, the 5-3-2 format gave stability at the back with captain Tom Bishop controlling his defence and cleaning up any attacks that managed to get through the back line of Jack Cherrington, Sam Clarke, Tom Watson and George Eva at left back.

Early stages of the game saw the grass on the wings grow by more than 1cm as the ball was played mostly through the middle of the park and the midfield of both sides seeing a lot of the ball.

Britwell United benefiting from taller and stronger players threatened more than Iver Heath with Charlie Aldridge the busier of the two goalkeepers, making an excellent save on the edge of his box to keep the score 0-0. Although Matthew Cole and Tom Randall up front caused problems for the Britwell defence with their pace and skill on the ball the two front men just couldn’t find that extra bit to open the scoring.

Iver Heath’s midfield of Lee Rolfe, Nick Hales and Stephen L’Angellier battled hard to contain the Britwell players and it was probably no less than the away team deserved when the ball broke loose on the right edge of the penalty area and a shot gave Charlie no chance as it flew into the bottom left hand corner of the net.

Iver Heath responded well and pressed forward with Lee Rolfe playing the ‘Veiera’ role in the centre of midfield and driving the team forward for the remainder of the half and it was no surprise when Matthew Cole dropped a little deeper and seeing the Britwell keeper of his line lobbed the ball into the net from what appeared to be 35 yards (more like 20 actually). With heads up Iver Heath finished the half stronger and fully deserved to be level even though Britwell missed a penalty after a challenge by Tom Bishop in the box was seen as a foul by the ref and the away team supporters (and most of the home team support as well).

The second half was much the same as the first with both teams evenly matched across the pitch, the additional skill and pace of the Britwell players being outdone by the battling qualities of Stephen L’Angellier and Tom Warren and the skills of Nick Hales trying to penetrate the Britwell defence.

As legs tired towards the end of the game the deciding goal was conceded by Iver Heath Youth as an excellent driven corner from Britwell, flew into the box and was deflected into the home team goal as the defender tried to clear.

Pressing forward for the equaliser Sam Taylor came on as sub in an attempt to push the midfield into attacking positions to get the equaliser. Excellent attacks by Matthew and Tom Randall as well as a promising free kick from Matthew did not secure a second goal as the final whistle meant a defeat for Iver Heath Youth in their first game.

A disappointing result but not a disappointing performance from The Youth that was supported by the Britwell management who were relieved to see the end of the game saying ‘ we have a good side that will win more games than we lose and would not want to play us every week’.

An excellent match as an opener, with both sides producing some good performances especially by my man of the match, Tom Warren.

The Man on The Side

Iver Heath Youth : Charlie Aldridge, Tom Warren, Jack Cherrington, Sam Clarke, Tom Bishop, George Eva, Lee Rolfe, Stephen L’Angellier, Nick Hales, Tom Randall, Matthew Cole, Sam Taylor, Charlie Warren.

Goals : Matthew Cole (1)

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