Leeds U 11 B - v- Birmingham Primary Schools B 31st October 2009
Leeds were anticipating a harder challenge than they experienced on the previous day against Telford and Wolverhampton. The B team were given the larger pitch with full sized goals and lined up with Scott Graham in goal for the first half protected by the back four of Alex Barrett, Aaron Wilcock, Luke Bennett and Robert Flynn. Early Leeds pressure from Sam Armstrong on the right and Harry Shelborn put the Birmingham defence on the back foot. However, they were proving hard to break down and serious challenges on the Bradford goal from Josh Copley and Tom Schofield, playing up front, were hard to come by.
The Birmingham midfield were winning the 50 -50 balls in the early exchanges but they were equally ineffective in troubling Leeds' robust central defensive partnership of Barrett and Wilcock. Good positioning by Graham snuffed out Birmingham's only serious endeavour in the first half when a through ball from midfield threatened to breach the dam.
Although good link up play between Copley, Shelborn, Schofield and Bambrook was producing striking opportunities for all concerned, the efforts were all straight at the Birmingham keeper. He was only tested once when a short corner to Luke Bennett resulted in a goal bound strike that the keeper managed to parry away for a another corner.
Second half substitutions saw Dan Resendez replace Graham in goal and Sheldon Muzvidziwa, Jack McGahan and Charlie Simpson replace Copley, Armstrong and Shelborn. McGahans' cultured left foot was making an immediate impact and crosses into the box were beginning to test the resolve of the Birmingham defence. With 10 minutes gone, McGahan put a great pass into the goal area, which was deftly flicked on by Simpson to Schofield on the right hand side of the area. Schofield drove the ball low and hard into the corner of the Birmingham goal to make it 1 - 0.
This brought about a mini revival in the Birmingham team and their midfield began to push Leeds back. Much like the first half though, their strike force could not find the net. Birmingham were attacking down the flanks but Resendez confidently intercepted the resulting crosses. As the half wore on, Leeds grew in confidence and should have gone 2-0 up when Sheldon sprung the off side trap on two occasions only to see his first effort go agonisingly wide of the right hand post and the second inspire the keeper to pull off an excellent diving save. The spectators were becoming increasingly anxious but the team dug deep saw out the last 5 minutes to earn the team a deserved victory.
Speaking after the match, Mr Tonge, the coach, commented that "he was very happy with the result. The boys had battled well on a large pitch and kept their concentration".
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