O'Briens U13s 0 Darlington FCYouth U13s 1

Premier League

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A couple of changes again for this game, Captain, Tom Ord's first full start of a long time, at left back

Luca Hendrickson came in on the right wing and Sam Pocock started for the first time up front.

O'Briens kicked the match off and attacked straight away, the move was instantly broken down by Nichol and Tweddle. The attacks were constantly going down their left wing and were cut out every time by Josh Bell at right back. The lads passed the ball around well, from Ord to Nichol to Jackson to McCowie. Attack after attack were cleared by the now strong partnership of Harland and Bruce, both tackling, heading and clearing well. Bell fed the ball to Hendrickson, who used his pace to get up the wing. Bell had to be substituted due to a knee injury, as he was carried off the pitch, he declared he was going back on! Smith came on for Bell, dropping into a defensive midfield role to breakdown their attacks. Nichol played McCowie through to set up Pocock who slot home his first goal of the season. 0-1.

O'briens pilled on the pressure even more but the lads did well to clear, with Johnston making a couple of great saves.

Half Time: O'Briens 0 Darlington FC Youth 1

Ruddick came on up front and Carvey on the right as Tweddle and Hendrickson came off.

The second half played the same as the first with O'briens pushing up the pitch and the Darlington Midfield/Defence cutting it out everytime. Ruddick did his best to cause problems for the defence and his close ball skills were a bit much for them at times. Darlington gave away 2 consecutive corners and luckily the strickers shot wide both times. At the other end Darlington failed to convert 2 chances, a shot wide from Nichol and a good save to deny McCowie. Their striker broke free and looked to score, but Johnson had other ideas and pulled off a magnificent save.

With five minutes to go, the lads still pressed up the pitch with Jackson, Nichol, Tweddle and Carvey blocking every run to get the ball to McCowie and Ruddick who were desperate to get the second. Finally the whistle went!!

Final Score: O'Briens 0 Darlington FC Youth 1

'The lads have worked incredibly hard in training over the last few months and have taken on board what they have to do. Injured players have returned and the team have started playing like a good unit. They were very unlucky last week to loose 1-0 and that never got them down, they built on that performance and turned it into a win. From the off, defender Archie Bruce said ' we can win this today', a belief that wasn't there not so long ago.'

Played as a squad, won as a squad - very proud lads

JAC