Mens 2nd XI Match Report
Potters Bar Mens 2nd XI v Royston 4th XI
20 November 2010 | by Anthony Levy
Off the back of the defeat at Vauxhall, this return to DAOS was just what the doctor ordered against a very young and inexperienced Royston side.
There was an interesting delay to proceedings when, not for the first time recently, a Royston team found out only arrival that their normal shirts clashed with those of the home side! A quick visit to Tesco yielded some cheap white shirts for the visitors so that the game could get under way, following Ryan Maidment’s rallying call of ‘See you on the beach!’
An early pattern quickly developed that continued for much of the game, with Bar dominating possession and territory as Royston’s youngsters tried their best to catch Bar on the break but were generally overmatched. There were a number of early chances but Danny Becker, in an unaccustomed role up front struggled to make a decisive touch. It was a surprise in fact that it took until midway through the half for the deadlock to be broken – Michael Levy and Freddie Waite set up the chance for Jon Yates to fire home.
Almost immediately though Royston almost equalised when their youngest player found himself free inside the D after an uncharacteristic mistake by Richard Hughes – fortunately the ball came back off the post, leaving Ryan to return to his role as a spectator. Pressure continued to be applied with Miles Edson in most of the action as the half progressed. On 26 minutes his pass across goal was turned home from close range by Danny Becker. Then in the final moments of the half Miles was twice free inside the D – on the first occasion he was denied by the keeper (kiss of death comment from the sidelines that ‘he must score’) but he made no mistake on the stroke of half time to make it 3-0.
Despite the score line the skipper was far from happy at half time feeling that too much time was being taken in the opposition D looking for a pass when players should be shooting, and looking for the side to work themselves harder in the second half.
The second half was generally more confident and could have yielded more than the 3 goals that came, but the continued effort and perseverance of the Royston youngsters didn’t warrant a hammering. Dan Sones and James McCormick were constant threats on the wings whilst Michael Levy, George Nye and Nick Walton were trying to keep things direct from the midfield. Danny Becker almost got his second goal of the game on 41 minutes when a rare short corner struck the post.
The goals soon came however – first Freddie Waite made it 4 with a smart finish from close range on 45 minutes; on 53 minutes George Nye was given all the time in the world to run into the D and unleash a powerful strike that went under the goalkeeper’s foot; and on 64 minutes Dan Sones was on hand to finish from close range after a defender had cleared off the line to deny Michael Levy.
A return to winning ways, but the side will need to step up a gear when they face two crucial games against Welwyn and West Herts before the mid season break.
Final Score: Potters Bar 6 - 0 Royston
Goal Scorers: J Yates, D Becker, M Edson, F Waite, G Nye, D Sones
Team: S Randon (Capt), R Maidment (GK), J Yates, N Shah, R Hughes, M Levy, F Waite, M Edson, D Becker, N Walton, G Nye, D Sones, J McCormick, C Edwards
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