Worcester City YC U9s vs WCT Raiders U9s

Worcester City Youth Colts U9s took part in another hard fought match at home when they hosted the WCT Raiders U9s team at Perdiswell Leisure Centre on Saturday 8th February 2020 for the second time in two weeks having played the same team in the cup last week.

Prior to the match, Manager Steve Maitland gave a stirring speech to the rest of the team.

Team Sheet
Goal Keeper - Tom
Defenders - Joel, Theo & Max
Midfielders - Thomas (captain), Ethan B, Ewan, Toby, Olly & Hayden
Forwards - Ethan R & Nathan

First Half
Both teams started the match well and were attempting to pass the ball around the pitch and defend when needed. Both teams were also making progress into the opposition penalty boxes, however there were only a couple clear cut chances to score in this first half.

Joel and Theo started the match in defence and were keeping the Raiders forwards at bay, Max joined the defence mid-way through the first half and continued where Joel left off, and again few chances presented themselves to the Raiders forwards in this half with this pair in control.

Thomas, Ethan B & Ewan started the game in midfield and mid-way through the half, they were replaced with Toby, Olly & Hayden. As in last week’s match against the same opponents, all of the midfield boys had to battle hard against a tough Raiders side.

Ethan R started the match upfront and swapped position with Nathan at the mid-way point, but it was Ethan R who came closest to scoring in this half in the 12th minute. Thomas made a run into the right side of the Raiders penalty box with the ball at his feet, he shot at goal but the Raiders goalie pulled off a great blocking save. However, the blocked save fell to the feet of Ethan R who was only a couple of metres from the goal, he swung his foot and the ball flew goal ward only to hit the post and the rebound was picked up by the grateful Raiders keeper.

Second Half
Buoyed by a good first half in which the City boys were competing on an even par with the Raiders team, the expectations were high that the City boys could go on and nick a goal for themselves, something which had eluded them in the first half.

However, hopes were quickly dashed when in only the 28th minute, one of the Raiders players took a long range shot from the edge of the City box. Tom playing in the City goal, managed to get a hand to the ball as it came flying in, but the power in the shot meant he wasn’t able to stop it going into the back of the net.

Only a couple of minutes later and Raiders doubled their lead when a corner led to a close range shot being poked in after a bit of lax defending by the City boys.

As happened in last week’s match against the same opposition, it took the City boys going down a couple of goals before they started to play to the best of their abilities.

In the 37th minute, Thomas broke down the wing with the ball at his feet; he made it into the Raiders penalty box with the goal keeper coming out to make a challenge. Thomas managed to poke the ball past the keeper but instead of the ball being goal ward bound, it dribbled across the goal mouth and Olly, following up could only shoot wide with Raiders defenders doing enough to put him off his mark.

In the 41st minute, the City boys in midfield put together some lovely passing moves and the ball came to Olly just inside the Raiders penalty box. With only the keeper to beat, Olly took a shot but it was just the wrong side of the right hand post.

Well played Raiders and good luck for the rest of the season. The match was watched by a few dozen respectful spectators who enjoyed a great game of football. After his great performance during the match, Hayden was awarded the Captains armband for the team’s next match. Thanks to all the City parents for their help and support on match day.