Jets Passing Game Pays Dividends
Jets Academy 5 Kentish Town Academy 1
16th September 2009
It is still very early days for our young academy team but once again they produced a performance beyond expectation to secure our first ever victory. Our first half display was full of a combination of good football, hard work and classy finishing which gave us a great 4-0 cushion to take into the second half. As in our previous two games we have found it more difficult in the second half but we rode our luck and managed to secure that all important first victory.
The match had started very brightly for us with both Leo Pascoulis and Lewis Cook having half chances to give us the lead. Then, on ten minutes, a quick break from Kentish gave their forward a run on goal, Jets keeper Cameron Inch made a great save at his feet but, unluckily, the rebound came off the Kentish players knee and looked goal-bound but somehow it squeezed just past the post for a goal kick.
From that point on the first half belonged to Jets and it was not long before Joe Zazzera won a good ball in the centre of midfield and then gave a great through ball to Leo Pascoulis who outpaced the defender and coolly slotted home for his first goal for the club.
With confidence high our midfield were starting to come into their own, Vinny Harkin in his first start for us was linking very well with Liam Coles down the right flank and Calum Heath has an eye for a through ball and we soon increased our lead. Lewis Cook has so far this season been outstanding with his finishing and, having gone close with a couple of chances, he was not going to be off the score sheet for long. Again, a through ball from Joe Zazzera gave Lewis the opportunity to hold off the defender with his strength and rifle an unstoppable shot into the bottom corner. 2-0 Jets.
We now had the Kentish Town team chasing shadows and Lewis Cook again made them pay when he out muscled a very strong centre back to get himself one-on-one with the keeper and he didn’t disappoint when he calmly slotted the ball past the advancing keeper.
Kentish Town were now desperate for the interval but Liam Coles combined well with Vinny Harkin to work himself a shooting opportunity from the edge of the area an unleashed a vicious shot that crashed against the bar. Liam was then the quickest to react to the high looped rebound and this time he sent an unstoppable shot into the top corner for what was the spectacular goal of the night, and the second week running for him. 4-0 Jets.
At the interval we knew the game was far from won and we would have to dig deep not to let Town back into the game. That proved to be the case as the Kentish Town team started very quickly and we started to play longer and longer balls rather than the successful passing play of the first half.
Kentish Town pulled a goal back on 51 minutes and were causing us lots of trouble. Our defence was holding out well with our centre back pairing of Michael McRoberts and Ollie Broughton making some vital interceptions and both full backs Rob Bareham and Jake Davison dealing with their increased work load.
As in previous weeks as soon as we stop passing the ball short and supporting each other we isolate our two forwards which just invites the opposition onto the attack. The next fifteen minutes saw us ride our luck but also defend well with Cameron Inch making a couple of very good last ditch saves.
Miles Cox had come on for Vinny Harkin and we started to get back into the game and some good work by Leo and Lewis produced a great chance for Miles to finish the game but he just failed to keep the ball below the bar. We had, however, now weathered the storm and the following attack gave Lewis an opportunity to drive into the penalty area only to brought down for a penalty. Liam Coles stepped up and made no mistake to give us a 5-1 lead.
Both Shaun Marshall and Matt Barham come on for their debuts and both contributed well for the remaining 20 minutes. With the game now won we again found the confidence to keep our passing shorter and hold on to the ball.
So our first victory, well deserved with another very encouraging performance. We have some very talented players in this group and the lads are performing very well as a unit; we are beginning to learn the reasons why we are having bad spells in games and will work hard to do the right things in the difficult times in games.
We hope everybody who has watched us has enjoyed the games and we are committed in the coming months to develop all the lads as both individuals and team players
Jets joint Man of the Match awards went to Ollie Broughton and Joe Zazzera.
