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Horsforth St Margaret's U-11s Reds dig deep for victory
Horsforth St Margaret's U-11s Reds won their latest league 5-3 in a game to remember.
Horsforth St.Margarets U-11s Reds 5
Shipley Pumas U-11's 3
Date: Sunday, January 13
Competiton: Craven League
This match against the Shipley Pumas provided that rare luxury for coach Steve Hughes – a full squad of 15 players with Alex Fox-Bullivant doing the honours as captain for the day.
* Click here for more Horsforth St Margaret's match reports and club news.
The team, buoyed by last week's epic performance in defeat against their powerful stable-mates, looked confident in the pre-match warm up, but clearly needed to guard against complacency.
Their opponents, despite a poor start to the season, had had some strong results recently and were clearly going to be no pushovers. The weather was cloudy but mild, with a strong wind behind the Pumas in the first half.
Horsforth Reds kicked off, but it was immediately apparent that any idea of a stroll to victory was wholly optimistic.
The team looked half asleep on a muddy pitch that kept flowing football to a premium, and theycould not get into their stride in the early exchanges.
The dependable back four of Thomas Filarowski, Sam Cole, Andrew Parsons, and Michael Gibbon had hardly woken upbefore the dreaded early goal was conceded.
This followed some excellent play on the left by the visitors and a finely judged chip by Shipley striker Lewis Fletcher which Alex could only watch sail over his head into the far corner.
The Reds suddenly realised they had a real match on their hands and went all-out on the attack, with Joseph Snowden dominating the midfield, and Sam Hughes looking dangerous up front.
Solid support work was provided by Oliver Poulton, Leon Cowell and Callum Sharp in midfield, all of whom gave the Pumas no time to settle on the ball.
An equaliser looked inevitable, and a succession of corners followed, with Matthew Raby going close with a clever flick that Sam West the Shipley keeper turned round the post. However the visitors' defence held firm and in one of their rare forays upfield, the Puma's doubled their lead.
This followed some hesitant defending from a corner which was seized upon by Shipley's Jacob Lalor and hammered past Alex, who stood no chance.
The home crowd was stunned into silence and with the Red team's confidence looking shattered, Coach Steve Hughes made a succession of substitutions.
This brought on the redoubtable quartet of Josh Pheasey, Joe Rainford, Miles Tidman and Kaylem King who all added some bite to the midfield with their tigerish tackling and determined running.
At the back Thomas Filarowski was having his finest game for the home team, not only winning the ball, but surging forward at every opportunity.
Up front Matthew Raby and Joe Rainford both had chances when they were
put clear, but both shot too early and the keeper saved comfortably.
The Reds desperately needed a foothold in the game and it was provided superbly by Sam Hughes, who charged through the creaking defence and poked the ball home to reduce the deficit to 1-2.
The home crowd now started to find their voices and cheered the team on, as they started to dominate the game. It came as no surprise when the equaliser arrived, following a goalmouth scramble that was pounced upon by the alert Joe Rainford who calmly side-footed the ball home after some fine work on the wing by Miles Tidman.
Soon afterwards the half time whistle blew, with rapturous applause greeting the team's fight back.
With the wind behind them in the second half, the Reds were expected to run out as comfortable winners.
Two free-kicks by Sam Cole went close to providing the lead, but the team lacked a cutting edge up front and couldn't create any clear-cut chances.
Matters went from bad to worse when, completely against the run of play, it was the visitors who took the lead.
A seemingly harmless shot by Lewis Fletcher, that Alex had covered, took a wicked deflection of Sam Cole and looped agonisingly over the keeper's despairing stretch to make it 3-2 to the Pumas.
It would have been easy for the Red team's heads to drop following this setback, however the players are now made of sterner stuff and they merely re-doubled their efforts.
A tactical change by the coach re-introduced the team's main strike force and they had an immediate impact.
Sam Hughes won the ball in the penalty area, beat one player and was about to shoot when he was up-ended by a defender. The Referee had no hesitation in pointing to the spot and Matthew Raby bravely took responsibility to take the penalty.
You could have heard a pin drop as he strode up and calmly side-footed the ball into the bottom corner – a textbook penalty to make it 3-3.
The Reds now had their tails up, with victory clearly in their sights. The breakthrough so nearly came when the battling Kaylem King won the ball on the edge of the area and shot low and hard towards the bottom corner.
It looked certain to be his first ever goal for the Reds but the keeper dived full length to bring off a magnificent save. Spurred on by some indomitable work in midfield by Joseph Snowdon and Oliver Poulton and
Miles Tidman, the Reds forward line looked more and more dangerous. The much deserved goal came again from Sam Hughes, who had a fine game, when he surged through a static defence and stroked the ball home to give his team the lead.
The comeback was sealed at the death when Matthew Raby collected the ball on the edge of the area, turned nimbly and floated the ball over the visitors' despairing keeper to make it 5-3, much to the home support's relief.
The referee blew the final whistle and both teams were applauded off
the pitch. This was a magnificent comeback against a resolute Pumas team, and sees the Reds advance to 5th place in the league with their eyes firmly set on the teams above them.
Congratulations to all their players and the manager, as the team continues to improve every week.
The Reds: 1.Alex, 16.Michael, 4.Andrew, 10.Sam Cole, 3.Thomas;5.Oliver, 14.Leon, 8.Sam Hughes, 11.Joseph; 2.Callum, 9.Matthew. Subs: 7.Joe, 12.Miles, 15.Josh, 21.Kaylem.
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Weather for Leeds
Wednesday 08 February 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: -7 C to 0 C
Wind Speed: 9 mph
Wind direction: South
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