Young Jets give Cheshunt first half scare

 

 

Jets Academy 3 Cheshunt 5

F.A. Youth Cup - 1st Qualifying Round

08 September 2010

On a historic night for Jets we entertained Cheshunt in the clubs first ever venture into the F.A.Youth Cup. A good crowd assembled for the occasion with many South Midland Players making the effort to come and support the lads.

We started very brightly and quickly established ourselves on top with some nice neat passing , Jake Grace in particular was finding lots of space down the left and combining well with both Charlie Parker and Lewis Cook, On fifteen minutes that combination worked well again to release Lewis Cook on a run into the box,he rounded a defender and found the net with a great low shot from a very tight angle, with our tails up we continued to press but were undone when a long clearance upfield found our center back pairing of Michael McRoberts and Con Keating half asleep allowing the Cheshunt forward to steal a yard on them both, the ball bounced kindly for him and he comfortable lobbed Cameron Inch from all of 25 yards as he came rushing from his line.

Unshaken by the set back the next 25 minutes up until the interval we played our best football and had Cheshunt chasing shadows on a lot of occasions, we just lacked the final pass on quite a few occasions but we were rewarded on 30 minutes when Lewis Cook latched on to a through ball from Gary Yerby, he shrugged of one heavy challenge before being brought down for a penalty kick. Up stepped a confident Andrew Brennan to restore our lead. Lewis Cook was proving to be too hot to handle for the Cheshunt defence and a good ball from Calum Heath saw him out pace the center backs and rifle a low shot into the Cheshunt net. As the interval approached good work involving Joe Zazzera and Gary Yerby gave Lewis another clear sight at goal but unfortunately his well struck shot just went wide of the upright.

Half time 3-1 to Jets

The second half started with Cheshunt making a tactical change from a 4-4-2 formation to a 3-5-2.
and applying some early pressure without looking too dangerous, Unfortunately we started very slowly and did not manage to get any sort of passing game going as we had in the first half, some of the boys were looking very tired and as we were about to make our first change on 55 minutes some poor defending set up an easy chance for Cheshunt giving Cameron Inch no chance at all. We made our substitution before the restart with Karl Oliyide coming on for Calum Heath to make his debut for the club. As the half progressed things did not get any better, Cheshunts superior fitness and strength had us reeling and it was no surprise when their equalising goal was quickly followed by another goal to put Cheshunt into the lead, further intoductions of both Aidan Chambers and Dan McNamara had little change on the game and to be fair to our three substitutes the game must have been very tough to come into as we were really finding the going tough. Cheshunt scored again to put the game beyond us with 5 minutes remaining, we did manage in the dying seconds to earn our second penalty of the might when cut in from the right side as the brought down just before releasing his shot. Andrew again took the Penalty but this time his little clip sailed over the bar to wrap up what was a hugely disappointing second half display from us.

In summing up our performance I dont think anybody in the ground would have left believing Cheshunt were the better footballing side, we fielded 8 boys who are under 16 when the majority of our opponents are approaching 18, as we have learnt those two years make a massive difference in the second half of matches but all the boys know what we need to do to make our passing ability come through, they just need to find the confidence to apply themselves. I dont believe a single Jets player maybe with the exception of our keeper gained any credit for themselves in the second half and as our legs tired our discipline went as well. This I believe is a much stronger squad than we had last year and I expect us to compete in every game we play for the full 90 minutes. We will learn from this match and take forward this experience into the season

Once again Thanks to everyone for your support, and I hope you enjoyed the entertainment given by both sides, lets hope the first xi have a great day and a better result in the real thing on saturday

MOM;- CON KEATING