Hampton Reds U15 2 vs 3 Boldmere St Michaels Junio

Today we welcomed Boldmere St Michael’s to Hampton, looking for our first win of the season.

We’ve come to know Boldmere over the years and know what to expect, a dogfight, and sure enough, that’s what we got.

An early breakthrough for Boldmere when the midfielder was given too much time and space to pick a pass with the striker through, took it past Harrison and slotted into the empty net. I take some responsibility here (which I spoke with Harrison) as I encouraged him to come out but really he should’ve stayed strong as he wasn’t going to make it. Nevertheless, 0-1 and a bad start.

Thankfully, the Reds did wake up after 10 minutes and started putting a foot in, lead by Dawson who left his mark on a number of players today and they’ll certainly remember him, for all the right reasons.

With Hampton now putting a foot in, Boldmere were becoming more and more frustrated, none more so than their striker who got away with a couple when throwing the ball away and also kicking it at one of our players out of frustration, a sign of things to come.

Unfortunately we lost Fynn here to injury, I fear he’ll be out for a few games now as he needs time to recover.

Nothing much on the chance front though until 25 minutes in and Omar took a chance from range, looping a shot in the air which dropped over the keeper into the net, 1-1 and fully deserved. Boldmere wouldn’t register another shot on our goal in the first half after they scored, which speaks volumes.

Unfortunately Hampton couldn’t take advantage of some Shakey goalkeeping, when Finn had a decent effort saved.

HT 1-1.

The second half started similar but their striker was invited to have a shot on goal from range when he wasn’t closed down, which managed to get under the hands of Harrison and into the net, 1-2. Boldmere had their tails up again. A string of Boldmere corners came to nothing until they got one right, hitting it to the far post where the striker was on hand to nod in. All to easy for Boldmere and disappointing to find ourselves 1-3 against a side who I believe aren’t as strong as our previous 2 opponents.

Hampton were still up for the fight though and the game had to stop when their striker, who was mouthing off all game, decided to swing at Sal. This turned into a bit of a scrap until it was all pulled apart. The ref handled it with common sense, with their striker being sent off (hurling abuse at everyone on his way) and Sal receiving a booking for retaliating. I’m glad Sal wasn’t given a red card as that would have been totally unfair.

20 minutes to go and an opportunity to snatch this result back.

Unfortunately, across the pitch, we didn’t have that collective urgency, so the minutes kept ticking away and we weren’t putting them under enough pressure, allowing them to keep running the clock down.

Finally, some urgency arrived and we were having some joy getting in behind, with Fin and Rushy causing problems. Rushy had a couple of chances but the keeper did well to save, then Rushy pushed one wide. Rushy again being a menace, was brought down and we’d get a late penalty… which Harrison dispatched. Unfortunately, there wasn’t any time left on the clock so we couldn’t get another chance… I really believe with a few minutes left we could have nicked something, but not to be.

I do feel this one got away from us and we shouldn’t have lost this one today. We were the better side for large parts and unfortunately poor behaviour got the rewards today.

We are competing, which is great, but it’s so frustrating being so close to points and not getting them, we have to keep believing.

Some good performances today, with Harrison making a top-drawer save in the second half which we all thought was destined for the bottom right corner… Dawson going in with some real bite in his challenges which I just love to see. Rushy, despite injury, working hard to create for the team, as well as Finn and everyone else out there that left it all on the pitch today.

MOTM this week went to Kielan, who was excellent throughout and unlucky to be on the losing side.

Cup next week, free hit, you just never know….

UTR

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