Under 11B League - Crowmarsh YFC v. Abingdon Youth FC – Sunday 4th October Having suffered their first defeat of the season the previous week, it was going to be interesting to see how the Crowmarsh Under 11s would react.

From the first minute it looked promising for Crowmarsh as Sam Beaumont was played through by Ed Seares, and only a great save by the Abingdon goalie diving at his feet prevented them from taking the lead. As it turned out, this would be Crowmarsh’s best chance of the half.

That near miss sparked Abingdon Youth into life and they started to run the game. In the 7th minute they broke through the Crowmarsh defence for a 1-on-1 with the keeper, Stephen Eatwell, but he raced out to narrow the forward’s angle and managed to deflect the shot out for a corner. Under almost constant pressure, Crowmarsh were struggling to stay in the game and were relying on the odd break for their only chances when, after 25 minutes, the inevitable happened. Abingdon broke down the right and fired in a shot which the keeper managed to save but, unfortunately for him, the ball dropped at the feet of Harry Wynn who fired home to put Abingdon 1-0 up. Now they were in the lead Abingdon continued to press and 2 minutes later a corner ended at the feet of Harry Wynn who scored his second of the game. This was the last real action of a first half dominated by Abingdon who went into the break with a thoroughly deserved 2-0 lead.

Crowmarsh came out in the second half knowing they had to sort themselves out, and they did just that. They began attacking from the kick-off and in the 32nd minute forced a corner. As the ball swung into the box Hugh Streets rose above all the Abingdon defenders to head the ball into the back of the net, 2-1 and the fight back had begun. Within a minute Sam Beaumont had received the ball and was running at the Abingdon keeper, before coolly rounding him and tapping the ball into an empty goal. It was now 2-2 and Crowmarsh had finally woken up, but Abingdon were still very much in the game and the next few minutes was exciting end-to-end stuff before Sam Beaumont once again received the ball and slipped it past the advancing keeper to put Crowmarsh 3-2 ahead.

Undeterred, Abingdon showed great spirit and continued to press, with only a great save from Stephen Eatwell in the 43rd minute preventing them drawing level. There was nothing he could do a minute later, however, when Crowmarsh were unable to clear a loose ball in the box and Henry Hall poked the ball home to make it 3-3. Having fought back so well, only to be pegged back once again, how would the Crowmarsh lads react – by scoring again!

Following great work by the Crowmarsh midfield, Sam Beaumont was put through once again and this time chose to lob the ball over the advancing keeper to make it 4-3. A minute later Ed Seares broke through and let loose one of his rasping shots, only to see the ball tipped over by a great save from the Abingdon keeper. It was now all Crowmarsh and when a short corner was played to Sam Beaumont he ran across the edge of the 18-yard box to send a shot goalwards and although, once again, the Abingdon keeper got a hand to it, this time he couldn’t stop it going in, 5-3 to Crowmarsh.

Crowmarsh were determined not to let their lead slip again and through constant pressure forced the Abingdon keeper to pick up a back-pass just outside his 6-yard box. With almost all the Abingdon players on their own goal line the resulting indirect free-kick was knocked into the path of Kai Thomas who, with pinpoint accuracy, found a space to thread the ball through them and make the score 6-3.

Full credit to Abingdon Youth who continued to press, and were only prevented from pulling a goal back by Lewis Ward bravely dropping at the feet of an advancing striker in what turned out to be the last action of the game.

After a poor start, Crowmarsh showed great ‘bouncebackability’ to eventually come out on top thanks to hard work, determination and a great all-round team display in the 2nd half. Well done lads.