U16s beat Carshalton

The under 16s were hosted by Carshalton Athletic Blues in the first round of the County Cup and had to go at it on a poor, uphill pitch at nescott college.

After observing the minutes silence, the game got underway and both sides struggled to get a good grip of it. Some careless passing meant that play kept turning over and that was pretty much how the entire first half went. Carshalton were the slightly better team and although they didn’t get many shots off there was enough play around our area for us to be wary. ..The Abbey back 4 did really well to double-up on players and keep them at bay.

With the game looking sloppy, Jamie Smith was brought on to give us a more direct approach and from the off he was physical and looked to break quickly. His introduction alongside determined efforts from Ethan Austin, Dylan lawrance & the back 4 definitely pulled the game back in our favour, but the halftime whistle went and the teams came off at 0-0

The second half started in the same manner and was just as physical as the first. But 10 minutes in and Abbey found another gear- putting on some nice pieces of play with one and two touch passes that caused Carshalton real problems. Jamie smith came close to breaking the deadlock a few times but was unlucky not to score. 0-0 at Full time and the match went to penalties.

Penalties:
Well placed and confident penalties from Dawid Stetner, Alfie Bennett, Ben hall, Ethan Austin & a great save from Mikey Verga saw Abbey win 4-2 and go into the next round!

MOTM: Jamie Smith - came on and really battled. Caused a huge problem from the off and never gave their CB’s a rest.

Ben Hall should also be immensely proud of himself and his performance; energetic, skilful and really worked hard for the full 80 minutes.