Morecambe U15 0-4 Neston SW Badgers 4 Nov 2007
We arrived at Lancaster an hour before push back, we were
welcomed with a nice cold breeze, but soon warmed up nicely.
After a very moving, positive speech from our coach
Tony Bush, the strong Neston side walked onto the pitch with high hopes, and a confident but not complacent attitude.
At
the back we had a very good goalkeeper, but Chris Warbrick didn't get much of a chance to show off his good goalkeeping skills
as our solid team held Morecombe off very well, with wave after wave of attacks.
Our
strong defence started off as (from left to right) Charlie Palin, playing a fantastic game, getting stuck in and holding the
left line very strongly with his low and solid tackles, then in the middle, we had Max Dutton, holding the last man role very
well, covering, wilst Tom McCurdy pushed forward, trying to move the game up the field, fortunately, whenever Morecombe did
break through, Bruno De Blaquier was there at right back, holding off Morecombe whilst the rest of our Neston side came
back to defend. After a while Bruno came off for a fiesty Tom Beaumont who surprised us all with his determination, concentration
and skill. Well done to the defence as you held your nerve throughout the strong attacks from Morecombe.
Neston
had a very powerful midfield wich consisted of pace, stamina and skill, which managed to break through Morecombe's defence,
causing havoc for the opposition. The midfield had alot of players and subs, which allowed everybody to run their socks off,
which they definitely did. On the left was Chris Hall, who just would not stop attacking along the left wing, and he also
managed a few shots in the circle, including a slow motion swing and a goal from a well planned penalty corner!! Then in the
middle was Jack Rowland, with his power and pace he managed to penetrate the Morcombe defence causing mayhem in their 25 yard
area. Along side Jack in the middle was Arthur Bush, who certainly lived up to his name, after a small amount of time finding
himself in the middle of the park, Arthur held the midfield very well, tightening the pitch so that Morecombe couldn't smack
any wild balls through the middle. On the right hand side were two class players; including Rob Beswick who kept on supporting
the right hand side, and even after taking a ball to the face, he continued to support the wing. The second right midfielder
was Richard Capes, who used his size and skill to break through the Morecombe left hand defence.
Our attack
played well together, James Knight, George Roberts, James Fennah and Scott Barry all put in good contributions, Knighty having
a few big swings at goal and George Roberts getting two goals, one including a volley on the line. James Fennah got a goal
too, whilst Scott was hungry for one, he didn't manage to score, but pushed the forwards on.
Thankyou to everybody
who helped out and to Tony for his great coaching on the sidelines!! Well done to the squad who are now through to the second
round!!
Tom McCurdy U15 Capt and Hockey Correspondent
Goals: G.Roberts x2, J.Fennah, C.Hall
Team: Chris Warbrick, Tom McCurdy (Capt),
Max Dutton, Bruno de Blaquier, Tom Beaumont, Charlie Palin, Chris Hall, Jack Rowlands, Arthur Bush, Rob Beswick, Richard Capes,
George Roberts, Scott Barry, James Fennah, James Knight
Neston SW Badgers 10-2 Northern 3 November 2007
Neston
entertained Northern at Stanney in a return fixture of a game that Northern had won 10-0 only last week. The Neston team showed
a number of changes with many of the Badger age players who normally play in the senior sides being available. A squad of
16 meant a few changes and some players trying out new positions.
After
some early pressure a cross from George Roberts found Scott Barry who found the net. George then scored one for himself finding
the corner of the goal from the edge of the D. Northern then came back into the game and a through ball saw a 1 on 1 with
Charles McCulloch saving the first but the chasing defenders could not prevent the rebound finding the goal. Neston responded
well, the defence of Charlie Palin, Max Dutton, Max Eastwood and Callum Boothroyd keeping on top of the Northern attack. At
the other end James Knight found the net twice to put Neston 4-1 up at half time.
5
changes at half time didn't reduce Neston's attacking with Richard Leeman and Rob Beswick putting in a lot of good work. After
about 10 minutes James Fennah scored at the far post following a good run and cross from Ben Creedon. James Knight then came
back on and completed his hat trick. Further changes saw Chris Hall back on and he soon added 2 more goals, the second with
an excellent reverse shot into the corner. Richard Fennah, Chris James, James Fennah and Charlie Palin then took over
defensive duties. George Roberts came back on and scored another with a fine reverse challenging Chris's for goal of the game.
Northern scored a second on the break before Scott Barry nipped in front of Nick Milosovic to complete the scoring.
The
final score of 10-2 showed the true strength of Neston's Badger age group, beating a strong Northern team. The game hopefully
will act as a good warm up for the National U15 cup match against Morcombe. A big thankyou to all the parents who turned up
to support.
Bolton Badgers 4-2 Neston Badgers 13 October 2007
Neston
continued their tour around the North West of England with a trip to Bolton, future excursions planned to Morcombe, Preston
and Southport!
The
Bolton team looked a good experienced and older side and as the game started this proved
to be the case with the early play at the Neston end. With Tom McCurdy organising things with Max Dutton, Chris James and
Alex Greenhalf playing well in defence Neston started to gain some control. The first clear chance fell to Scott Barry who
was unable to beat the Bolton keeper, the clearance went straight down to the Neston end where the sole Bolton
attacker beat Alex Davies to score. Neston faught back with Richard Fennah and Rob Beswick starting to win ball in midfield
and after a few near misses Scott found the goal to equalise with a strong shot. Just before half time a poorly cleared short
corner led to Bolton taking the lead.
The
second half started with Neston on the attack and a free hit on the edge of the D looked to have been deflected into the goal
by James Fennah, unfortunately the goal was disallowed and Bolton promptly went up the other
end and scored with a hard cross shot from the right. Charlie Palin was now playing at right back and linking well with Jon
Crick and Ben Thomas on the right. Eventually Richard Fennah found the goal and at 3-2 Neston looked capable of finding an
equaliser. With the game now stretched Bolton added a fourth on the break.
Neston
put in a good competitive performance against a strong side and with a little luck may have come away with a draw. Thankyou
to all the parents who helped with transport.
Leigh Badgers 1-6 Neston Badgers 6 October 2007
Neston travelled to deepest Lancashire
in weather more suited to the cricket season. The Leigh side looked very inexperienced but were strengthened by a couple of adult players in defence and goal.
Neston were soon on the attack but could not force the ball past
the Leigh keeper. Eventually a cross from the left found Charlie Palin at the far post to push the ball into an empty net.
More attacking saw James Fennah nearly get squashed by the oversize keeper, but he got to his feet and found space to score
with a good shot from the edge of the D. The third was possibly the best of the game, a rare Leigh attack was broken up by
Callum Boothroyd who found Charlie Palin moving down the right wing, his cross found Richard Fennah in the middle who swept
the ball past the keeper. A fourth was added by Scott Barry before half time.
The Neston defence of Callum, Alex Greenhalf, Greg Hughes, Chris
James and Ben Creedon, kept the ball well away from Alex Davies in goal. Ben Creedon moved up to right half in the second
half and worked well to get a number of crosses in. From one of these Scott Barry added his second. The sixth was added by
Nick Milosovic. Rob Beswick came close to scoring with a couple of short corner shots but a seventh goal could not be found.
With Neston taking their foot of the gas Leigh mounted a number of attacks and won a penalty flick when the under utilised
Alex Davies tripped a Leigh forward. Alex saved the flick, but could not prevent Leigh scoring a well deserved consolation
a few minutes later. The score finished 6-1 in Neston’s favour.
Many thanks to Roy Rodger for umpiring and the parents who helped
transport the team to Leigh.
Deeside Badgers 6-0 Neston Badgers 22 September 2007
Neston made the long journey to Nantwich to play Deeside, again confusing some parents who quite
rightly thought the game was going to be closer to home! With a team made up of 10 of last years Beavers and tough game was
expected. Deeside had a lot of the ball early on and the Neston defence of Alex Davies, Alex Greenhalf, Max Dutton, Callum
Boothroyd and Chris James were kept busy. Given the amount of ball in the Neston D there were very few clean attempts at goal.
With help from Tom Honeybourne, Richard
Capes and Richard Fennah in
the centre of midfield Neston got some ball in the Deeside half, the clearest opportunity being a pass from Richard F that
narrowly failed to find his brother James in the D. After about 25 minutes the pressure told and a weak shot found its way
into the goal. A second was added from a deflected shot leaving the home side 2-0 up at half time.
Deeside started the second half on the attack and soon started to put pressure on the Neston
goal and not before long they had stretched their lead to 6-0. With Deeside committing a lot to attack the Neston midfield
started to get the ball up the field where Charlie Palin worked well on the right, Greg Hughes on the left, Nick Milosovich
and Scott Barry chased well up front. A few attacks led to the Deeside keeper being called into action but overall the final
pass did not lead to any clear cut chances. The final score was 6-0 and was a fair result given the standard of the opposition.
Neston stuck to the task well, keeping their shape and in general looked to play their way out of defence. On the occasions
that a good opening could have been made the final pass too often didn’t quite make its target.
Thank you to the parents who helped with transport, our next game is at home to Southport at Neston Rec, meet 11.30 for a 12.00 start
