Hallsy's Academy Report - Late Easter Edition

My sincere apologies that the report for the 2nd XI's game at East Berkshire had not been reported sooner, but alas I was out of the country seeking my fortunes in a far away land. Never fear as goalscoring hero Iain "Luke Haggert" Haggart takes up the action from this pre Chocolate Egg bonanza match up...

This week saw the 2^nd team play away against East Berkshire. Confidence was high after last week’s 6-0 thrashing of Uxbridge in a game which was totally dominated by Worthing and the team playing back to their usual fluent selves. The venue was changed from grass to artificial at the last minute due to wet weather but upon arriving we found it to be flat and smooth which suits our passing game.

The squad was back to normal strength apart from Nick Colwell and Phil Charman who pulled out ill on the day. The game began at a fast pace with Worthing having most of the possession and passing the ball about comfortably creating chances. However the through balls, which on grass would have held up on the surface, just ran out of the reach of the wingers and strikers. The best chance in the first 20 minutes was for Worthing. Matt Dodd won the ball in the middle of the field played a one two with Thom Taylor and unleashed a powerful shot towards the goal. Everyone though the ball was sailing in past the stranded keeper, unfortunately the ball crashed against the bar and would have been a deserved opening goal to Worthing. The horrible nature of the game then struck. Worthing who had comfortably controlled the opening game conceded the first goal. A long ball down the left was not dealt with and their right winger chipped the ball past the onrushing keeper Gillard. This then meant Worthing had to up the ante for the rest of the half because this team are probably the strongest team we have played this season. We continued to press with Ezio and Tomas causing plenty of problems up front with pace and power. Towards the end of the half Worthing won a corner after great work from the whole right hand side and then a splendid double save from the keeper. At first the corner looked to have been wasted, but the resulting clearance was crossed back in to the box where Ezio was conveniently placed in front of the keeper. The keeper fumbled the ball to the most unlikely person Iain Haggart who tapped the ball into an empty net to score his first goal for the academy. (Thank You Ezio!!)

1-1 at half time.

The second half Worthing continued on the same foot and dominated again, creating plenty of chances. However as I have said football can be horrible and Worthing conceded again after outplaying the opposition. A ball down the left again wasn’t dealt with and somehow their player managed to score past Kieron at the near post from the by line. Worthing then had a fight back on our hands although the team knew we could do it even against a strong opposition. The boys continued to cause problems for the opposition throughout the half. It was until about 25 minutes left when Paul Jackson came on for Tomas Nemeth when Worthing found an equaliser. The impressive Des O’Connor floated the ball into the back post towards Thom Taylor who was running in. In my opinion this is easily goal of the season and it’s quite hard to describe. It’s a lot like Bolo Zenden’s goal for Sunderland at the weekend but on his right foot and back peddling from the edge of the box. Whoever saw that goal will have a brief image of what this goal was like. If you need to know in more detail just ask Thom to tell you! Worthing continued to press and moments later Paul pounced on a scuffed kick by the keeper to tap the ball into the empty net. 3-2. Worthing then defended excellently for the last 15 minutes and the game ended 3-2.

An excellent team performance by everyone in the team and we deserved to win. A perfect result leading up to the county cup final and we should go into the end of the season full of confidence.

So to conclude another fantastic performance from the 2nd XI as their season goes from strength to strength. With a Cup Final on the horizon all must not take their "eyes off the prize" to ensure that they get a starting berth when the big day arrives.

Onwards and Upwards,

Hallsy