Under 17s/18s Pre-Season Round-Up

Many of the Under 18 squad have been training with Mick Stockwell’s 1st team squad since the start of pre-season & indeed Ben Garnham, Luke Read & Ben Seaman have gone onto play a part in their opening league games. Seaman even earned recognition from Ipswich Town for his flying start to the season, going on tour with their youth team, playing against Southend, Port Vale & Wrexham!

Our 1st ‘competitive’ friendly came against SIL Premier Division ‘newcomers’ – BT Trimley & the kids gave a terrific performance & real insight into the potential future for the club. Goals from Sean Rea, Ben Hutton & Craig Jennings helped secure a comfortable 3-2 victory, but it was equally pleasing to see the return to action of Ted Nicholls & James Churchill, who both missed the whole of last season after suffering broken legs! 

The first disappointment of the pre-season campaign came when we surrendered meekly to Ipswich Town Under 16s, losing 3-1 (Craig Jennings on target again), although goalkeeper, Lewis Rhodes was the main reason why the defeat wasn’t much heavier!

A mixture of SETEC 1st years (Under 17s) & Under 16s paid the penalty for a disastrous opening 30 minutes when they played Ipswich Town Under 15s, finding themselves 6-0 down! The following 40 minutes saw a reformation & produced many reasons to be positive about the future, as we finally did ourselves justice & even reduced to score to 7-2, before our tired legs, coupled with Ipswich Town’s extra quality saw the score-line finish 11-3, our goals coming from Jack Lawrence, Jack Garnham & James Churchill. 

Following the two defeats at the hands of Ipswich Town, it was a very young Under 18 side that got us back to winning ways against a strong Brantham Youth team! Indeed, 5 of John Beecroft’s Under 16 squad were involved, while there were 1st appearances of pre-season for Adam Webster, Miles Powell & Josh Mayhew.
There were plenty of storms to weather against stronger, older opponents, but the ability of every player to receive & pass the ball kept us in the game before that extra little bit of quality, coupled with fresh young legs from the bench saw us run out 4-3 winners. James Churchill, Mayhew & Webster all scored equalizers before 15 year old Jordan Seaman, younger brother of 1st team striker, Ben, raced away to get the winning goal.

The final two games leading up to the season’s Ridgeon’s League opener against Stowmarket were strictly Under 17 fixtures. The first of these two fixtures was against Coplestonian ‘A’ & the lack of cohesion was there for everybody to see! Despite playing some good football, there was a lot of misunderstanding to disrupt our attacking play along with defensive confusion! 
With the score at 3-3 with 20 minutes left, it was the hosts who ran away with the game in the latter stages, finally running out 6-3 winners! SETEC goal-scorers were Adam Webster, Josh Mayhew & Jack Severy.

The Under 17s were in action again two days later playing an internal game against Woodbridge Town Under 16s, who will be competing in the Eastern Junior Alliance. A solitary free-kick from Josh Mayhew was the only difference between the two teams in a tightly-fought match, which contained plenty of excellent passing football. 

Following the opening Ridgeons Youth League fixture (debacle?) versus Stowmarket, a very different Under 18 team took on Grays, as preparation for the Eastern Junior Alliance season. Injuries from the reserve fixture the previous day & a number of players unavailable for a whole host of reasons left us scratching around for a team! Understandably, a lack of fluency, understanding & communication left us trailing 4-1 at the interval (our goal being a spectacular effort from ‘guest’ player, James Crick), before an improved showing saw Sean Rea score the only goal of the 2nd half.

The final friendly of a hectic pre- season came when a complete Under 17 team (minus those who have been playing in the reserves!) & even a few Under 16s, played host to Rushmere Under 18s, who won the Felixstowe & District Under 18 league, to give our youngsters a taste of floodlit football. In a compelling match, Rushmere eventually ran out 3-1 winners – Josh Mayhew was on target for Woodbridge!

U17 & U18s PRE-SEASON RESULTS
27th July v BT Trimley (A): WON 3-2 (Rea, Hutton & Jennings)
18th Aug v ITFC U16 (A): LOST 1-3 (Jennings)
21st Aug v ITFC U15 (A): LOST 3-11 (J. Lawrence, J. Garnham & Churchill)
22nd Aug v Brantham U18 (A): WON 4-3 (Churchill, Mayhew, Webster & J Seaman)
28th Aug v Coplestonian ‘A’ (A): LOST 3-6 (Webster, Mayhew & Severy)
30th Aug v WTFC U16 (H): WON 1-0 (Mayhew)
2nd Sept v Grays U18 (H): LOST 2-4 (Crick & Rea)
4th Sept: v Rushmere U18 (H): LOST 1-3 (Mayhew)