Herefordshire FA U18s 5 - 3 Nottinghamshire FA U18s

Midland Counties Youth Championship
Allpay Park (Westfields FC) Sunday 14th January 2018

Football is traditionally a game of two halves, however this rollercoaster of a game could be broken down into three distinct segments. At a bitterly cold Allpay Park, Herefordshire made a lightening start netting through Alex Lancett before a minute had elapsed. The home team attacked incessantly and looked like scoring at will. Lancett hit the bar and James Hancocks brought the best out of the visiting goalkeeper, Elliot Stephenson.

Goals had to come and they did; Alex Lancett scored after a defence splitting move and George Hayes made it 3-0 with a brilliant individual goal. Nottinghamshire began to improve but missed two good chances. Just on the stroke of half-time, a long ball caught out the home defence and Ben Oates reduced the lead.

 After the interval the visitors continued where they left off. Alex Robinson and Dominic Baker were creating havoc in the home defence for the next 20 minutes; resulting in goals from Ryan Elman and Joe Welsh to make the score 3-3. Victory for the visitors looked imminent but in the 75th minute Adam Hockey scored against the run of play to inspire a Herefordshire revival. The match was sealed with a second goal of the game from George Hayes and the game ended without further drama.

 Both teams could be proud of their performance in this thrilling game.

Thanks to Trevor Jones for the match report.