Littleborough Junior U13 Y 2 vs 2 Roach Dynamos U13 Green

A repeat of the fixture from two weeks ago as Roach Greens travelled to Littleborough, this time in the league. With a few players missing or unavailable, Roach Greens were down to 12 players so knew they'd be in for a tough game.

And it looked like it was going to be a really tough morning when Littleborough took the lead just 4 minutes in. A good corner was swung in and with no challenge from a Roach player, it was a free volley into the net. Just 7 minutes later and Littleborough doubled their lead, catching Roach sleeping again. A shuffle around in formation and Roach Greens managed to see out the half without conceding any more.

At half time, we talked about being first to the loose balls and putting in more energy, particularly in the centre of midfield.

The second half started much better with Roach Greens winning more possession and attempting to get in behind the defence. In the 47th minute, some good play by Alex saw the ball come through to Ewan and he made no mistake, firing in at the near post. This seemed to give Roach a boost and they really started pushing for an equaliser. Balls were being won by the midfield trio of Maxi, Xavier and Dylan, and it was Dylan's good work which saw the ball land with Alex on the left corner of the 18 yard box. Alex took control, composed himself and hit a beautiful shot over the keeper and into the net. Roach had another goal ruled out for offside and Alex got absolutely cleared out by the last Littleborough defender when in on goal again, preventing a good opportunity to take the lead. At the other end the whole defence played well and James was in fantastic form, commanding his area and making some brilliant saves to keep his team in the game.

It finished 2-2 which was probably a fair result, but was a performance the Roach Greens can be proud of.

Man of the match awards went to James for his goalkeeping heroics, Logan for a great display at left wing back and Xavier for an energetic and intense display in the midfield.