Here's a round up of how our youth teams fared last weekend in the Russell Foster Youth League and the Teesside Junior Football Alliance League.

Because of FA rules, we're unable to publish the results of any matches involving Under 11s and below.

U10 Boys

DFC Quakers v Foundation of Light

A real headscratcher this morning. The boys played really well against a strong Foundation of Light team and created a number of chances that were denied goals by some really good last ditch tackles and saves by the Foundation defence/goalkeeper. We passed the ball well, tried to play forwards with pace at every opportunity and slowed things down when we needed and held strong defensively when Foundation tried to counter.

As the first half progressed we probably got a little too eager to make our control of the game count and maybe got a little bit frustrated that we hadn’t made the breakthrough we deserved and over committed in attack which led to a very quick counter from Foundation and we were unable to recover in time to prevent a goal against just before half time.

The second half had a different feel to it from our perspective. Foundation seemed to take a lot of confidence from the goal and soaked up a lot of pressure and were content to try and hit us on the break with long balls from the goalkeeper and really test our desire to recover the ball. We conceded a corner early in the second half and failed to defend it giving space for a free header.

It was at this point that the boys got to grips with the game again and played some of the best football we’ve played in a long time which is a strange thing to say about a team that has dominated the league this season.

CR1 was as assured as ever and had made a number of 1-1 saves to keep the score down and TB5/LF4 kept the counters at bay. All of a sudden we were playing through the lines and getting a lot of joy down the wings through JN9 and NP7. NP causing problems down the RW wriggled free from his marker and played a couple of passes in and around the box with IT8 and he got the ball back in front of goal to grab our first and not long after a similar move on the opposite flank involving JN9/IT8/FC10 saw FC10 grab a second.

The last few minutes were a but frantic and Foundation started to throw everything at us while we also searched for the third goal and we were caught again with a fast counter which found our powers of recovery lacking and a goalmouth scramble ended up with the ball at the feet of Foundations striker who poked in from a yard out – final whistle.

Goals – NP7/FC10

U11 Boys

Marton Royals Vs. Darlington FC

Following an early morning pitch inspection at Marton’s Hall drive ground we were delighted to hear that the game was going ahead.

It was a close encounter on a decent pitch with good football being played.

Due to the high intensity from both teams players had very little time on the ball. This was good for our boys as their movement, speed of play and decision making was put to the test. There were very few clear cut chances throughout the match with both teams cancelling each other out with play predominantly being in the middle third. Neither team were able to break the deadlock.

We go away satisfied as there were lots of positives to be taken from the game. A good effort by the boys and a welcome clean sheet for them.

Our POTM was Noah who dropped into the centre back position producing a very mature performance. Excellent positioning, judgement and decision making from him making his task look easy.

POTM: NH

Sponsored by:

First Class Learning

The Cross Keys (Gainford)

U11 Boys

Thornaby Town FC  Vs

Darlington FC Quakers

Today we played the reverse fixture from last week and with a number of our players returning from illness and injury who were absent last week our boys were looking to return the favour of an away win and our boys did exactly that!

We really clicked today and I could tell in the warm up prior to KO our passing and movement looked so much slicker!!

We carried this into our game and for the majority of the match we won every 1st and second ball which was really pleasing to see, we had great energy about us from front to back today.

We flew out the blocks to take an early lead, and throughout the half our passing and link up play was great with wave after wave of attacks, but unfortunately we Conceded against the run of play and the half ended 1-1.

At Ht we spoke about needing to start the second half quickly and playing in the same way we started the match and they did scoring 4 more goals.

POM MATCH

Rossi 🔥

Goals

Rossi ⚽️⚽️⚽️

Tate M ⚽️

Freddie C ⚽️

Match sponsor

Skipbridge signs 

U7 Boys

A very exciting match in which we were behind for most of the game. The boys never gave up though and battled really well. Three goals from  OM two of which were welll struck free kicks which helped us share the points. The other player award went to Ru who stepped up and covered in goal as well as having a great game on pitch.

It was good to see the boys not give up and battle so hard, great team spirit by everyone.