U16s vs Bedfont Sports

The U16s were away at Bedfont Sports in the cup this weekend and although it wasn’t pretty, we’re through to the next round.

The game was an open affair with both teams battling hard and creating a number of chances. Resolute defending from Josh O’Neil, Jack Harrington, Nathan Cole and Luca Montemarano-Lockie helped our cause and was backed up by excellent goal keeping from Mikey Verga - who shut out the opposition on a number of occasions.

At the other end of the pitch the Stetner brothers, Ben Hall, George Marshall, Dylan Lawrance, Ethan Austin & Jamie Smith worked tirelessly, but were unable to capitalize until the 79th minute when Jamie Smith was put through 1 on 1 with the keeper and poked it home with a minute to go.

Buoyed by their last gasp goal (and assuming it was the winner) the Abbey boys thought that the game was done and switched off. This was a lesson they were going to have the learn the hard way, as straight from the restart Bedfont sent a long punt up field which caused panic in our box and resulted in one of the Bedfont players being brought down. The ref duly awarded the penalty and with 10 seconds to go Bedfont tucked it away, making it 1-1 and taking the game to a shootout.

Two outstanding penalty saves by Mikey followed and well-placed penalties from Alfie Bennet, Ben Hall, George Marshall and Ethan Austin saw us claim the win... but this was far from pretty and far from the sort of performances we’ve seen recently. That said, we’re through to the next round and a little bit of luck is always welcome!

MOTM: Josh O’Neil. An absolute rock in the back 4 and able to showcase his ability on and off the ball with some clever defending and excellent distribution.

Mikey Verga should also take enormous pride and confidence from this game after an outstanding performance from our #1.