Thurston Youth 2 Woodbridge Town 6

Sunday 25th November 2007

Half-time: 4-0 Full-Time: 6-2 Scorers: Taylor (2); Christie (2); Thurlow; Portaluri Team: Joe Elsom; Ashley Archer; Aaron Thurlow; Ben Hopkins; Ewan Wickson; Harry Hayward; Sam Tripp; Laurence Portaluri; Caspar Church; Jack Christie; Marcus Taylor. Subs: Miles Kekwick; Kieron Marshall; Giorgio Dimuccio The Under 11 Sunday side maintained its unbeaten record with a comprehensive victory over second in the table Thurston. This game was an efficient rather than stylish performance. However this was a game that shows that the boys are capable of grinding out results when not firing on all cylinders. In fairness this was another game in which the opposition got ten players behind the ball at every opportunity and centre-midfielders Sam Tripp and Laurence Portaluri were rarely given any time or space on the ball, particularly in the first half. However in a scrappy opening ten minutes Woodbridge always looked the most likely to break the deadlock, although the defence had to be mindful of Thurston’s tactic of trying to mount quick counter attacks. The hundredth goal of a prolific season came when Ashley Archer put in a high cross, which the opposition keeper could not gather and Marcus Taylor was on hand to tuck the loose ball away. Caspar Church, who was having his best game of the season on the left of midfield, had an opportunity to extend the lead, but shot just over, before Jack Christie, who was causing the Thurston defence all kinds of problems scored a superb second when he controlled the ball, turned and rifled home a shot from the edge of the area. The second goal seemed to settle the boys and the team then played some of its best football of the game with Harry Hayward beginning to see more of the ball on the right wing. The ball was being passed around with more accuracy and Thurston buckled under the pressure and two more goals followed before half-time. Aaron Thurlow, again deputising at centre-half in the absence of Khaled Abdel-Aziz, struck another wonderful drive that gave the opposition keeper no chance and this was followed with another when Laurence Portaluri shot from just outside the penalty area to score his 23rd goal of the season. However just before the interval an injury to Aaron Thurlow meant that the defence had to be re-jigged with Ashley moving alongside captain Ben Hopkins with Miles Kekwick coming on at left-back and Ewan Wickson swapping flanks. The second-half saw Giorgio Dimuccio and Kieron Marshall replace Marcus and Harry and the boys picked up the pace with Giorgio and Caspar on the left and Ewan and Kieron on the right starting to stretch the opposition defence and give Laurence more options to weave his magic. It was no surprise then when Jack Christie latched onto a through ball and tucked it by the advancing keeper. At 5-0 Thurston came back into the match and started to take advantage of some hesitancy at the back and goalkeeper Joe Elsom made two outstanding saves high to his right. However Thurston were beginning to sense a goal and when a through ball evaded Ashley, although Joe made the initial block, he could do nothing to prevent an opposition forward picking up the rebound. A second goal followed from a corner when a Thurston defender was left unmarked in the centre of the six yard box. Two pieces of sloppy defending had again caught us cold and it took a good header from Ewan Wickson at the near post to prevent a dangerous cross reaching an on-rushing forward. Captain Ben Hopkins led by example and the defence settled when Aaron Thurlow returned to the fray and Marcus Taylor eased any nerves when his shot on the run from just outside the penalty area went through the dive of the Thurston keeper. This was an important win that takes the boys six points clear at the top of the table and adds to the teams growing reputation. Prior to this game Thurston had only lost once in the league and that was to Bury in the first match of the season.