Alness v WAFC U17s
Sunday 6th
Sept 2009
3 x 30 minute periods
Final Score: Alness 0:7 Wick (Steven [35], Halliday [45],
o.g. [50], Ahmed [63], MacGregor [76], [80], [87])
The 1st period ended goalless despite relentless
pressure from a young Wick team and can be best summarised as excellent
possession play but lacking a finish which challenged the home goalkeeper. The pick of the early exchanges was Gordon
MacNab's drilled effort from 40 yards that rattled the crossbar. The home side failed to clear the rebound,
and the ball broke to Ryan Begg who was unlucky to see his strike hit the
outside of the post.
Alness were restricted to a handful of chances throughout
the 90 minutes, but almost took the lead almost immediately at the start of the
2nd period, possibly as a result of a couple of substitutions. Visiting goalkeeper Daniel Budge was alert
and dealt with the 1-on-1 situation well.
The first goal came from an excellent run from MacNab who waltzed
through the home midfield and defence and set up Alan Steven who coolly
finished from close range with his first touch of the game. Continued pressure resulted in a series of
corners, the last of which was taken by Jack Halliday who scored directly when
his inswinging cross sneaked in at the unguarded front post. A third goal was imminent as the visitors
continued their foray towards the home penalty box. Good link-up play on the right hand side
resulted in a Saleem Ahmed cross being turned into his own net by an Alness
defender who was attempting to clear from the well-timed run of Steven.
The final period saw further changes in personnel by
Academy, with the same high level of possession and distribution being
maintained. Ahmed finished off a fine move when he slotted home a perfectly
weighted and timed Halliday pass from 18 yards. Marc MacGregor came on for the last 20 minutes
made an instant impact by scoring twice from close range thanks to his
awareness on the penalty box. The most
aesthetically pleasing goal was the 7th and last of the day. Begg picked up a loose ball in midfield and
passed back Flett into the centre of defence where the interplay continued
before the ball was passed to full back Michael Robertson. He then found Ahmed, who had taken up
excellent position on the right flank.
Ahmed cut inside and played in the overlapping Robertson who had
continued his run up the right wing.
Robertson's instinct was to cut the ball back to the front post where
MacGregor was lurking and he completed the textbook move with a fine finish
from 6 yards.
Squad: Daniel Budge , Hamish Flett, Ross Mackay, Chris
Riddel, Logan Munro, Gordie Macnab, Jack Haliday, James Mackay, Micheal
Robertson, Kerr Mackay, Ryan Begg,
Subs: Alan Steven, Saleem Ahmed, Marc Macgregor, Andrew
Shearer, Murry Macintosh
Manager (James Robertson and David Dunn) quotes:
"The
boys played extremely well throughout all 3 periods and a lot of what we'd been
working on in training came to fruition.
Unlucky not to have been 2 or 3 up at the break. The last goal really summarised the
performance with excellent possession, good movement, both on and off the ball,
a good delivery and instinctive finish.
We had 19 players down with us which is too many, particularly as we'd
want to give the boys as much time on the park as possible: we were expecting 3
of them to be on trial with Ross
County. Hopefully we'll see as many at training on
Wednesdays! A good start to the campaign
but we won't be reading too much into it at this stage with Alness missing 3
key players. We might need to have a bit
more urgency in possession since some other teams will likely not allow us to
be as comfortable on the ball."
