Braodhall Tigers v Stotfold Youth 9th March 2008.

Lost 0 – 1. Stotfold Goal (48mins)

Team: Charlie 1, Jordan , Tom, Paul, Marcus, Lain, Kieran, Rickie, Charlie2, Alex, and Dominic.
Subs., Kurt, Mackenzie, Matt, Robert.

A sunny March day and the Tigers are involved in another six pointer with Stotfold Youth this time

The Tigers started the brighter today and were quickly on the attack, but it took until eight minutes to register our first shot on Goal. This saw Marcus attacking down the left wing and narrowly shooting wide from a tight angle.

9 Minutes the Tigers force a corner and a volley from Kieran sees his shot just wide.

As with the Hitchin game the main battle is being played out in the centre of the park, and the Tigers were gradually winning this.
The main problem was that every time we managed to break on goal the linesman flagged for off side.

Again on twelve minutes Marcus is just wide from a great run.

It took until the eighteenth minutes for Stotfold to force their first corner after some good passing in midfield and a quick break, which the defence quickly dealt with.

After this the Tigers continued on the attack and again were unlucky not to score with a Marcus shot.

Half Time 0-0

The defence of Jordan, Tom, Charlie2 and Paul had done a great job and Robert was very unlucky to see a goal disallowed for off side again.

The second half saw Stotfold change tactics and opt for a more direct style of play by attempting to put their strikers in with a long ball game.
But we were having none of this and were quickly on the attack again and Marcus testing the Keeper on 36 minutes.

The midfield battle continued between both teams with some great football being played by both sides, again with the Tigers just edging it.

42 minutes Alex is put through on goal but is unable to put any power behind the shot and the keeper saves comfortably.

50 A goal mouth scramble sees the Stotfold claw the ball from behind the goal line and Alex puts the ball in on the second attempt. (The referee gives the goal, for the Linesman to rule it out for handball).

51 minutes from the resulting free kick Kieran again manages to take the ball on the edge of the area and calmly shoot for the Keeper to save.

56 minutes Sucker punch Stotfold score from a defensive mix up against the run of play.

58 minutes Mackenzie pulls of another fine save from a Stotfold shot on Target.

Whilst the Tigers were not on top form today, they still managed to put in a performance that should have seen them win the game. This would have happened today if not for offside being given every other time we went forward.

The Stotfold Manager summed up the game with me at the end by saying "it was a smash and grab" for them.

Pete