Woodbridge Town 8 Somersham 2

Sunday 16th September 2007

The boys extended their 100% record this season to four games with a comfortable 8-2 victory over Somersham. The performance today was in many ways better than the previous weeks rout of Barons Youth and the defence looked particularly strong and well-organised.

Today’s game saw Marcus Taylor and Giorgio Dimuccio make their first appearances for the team this season and Marcus signed off with a well taken hat-trick. Giorgio also had two excellent shots well saved by the Somersham keeper. The opposition keeper had a superb game and in the first half made several first class saves and at one point it looked as though he might thwart us single-handed. However once Marcus opened the scoring from an excellent pass from Laurence Portaluri, the team settled and created more and more opportunities.

Marcus and Khaled Abdel-Aziz both struck the woodwork before Aaron Thurlow added the second with a well placed shot after some good work by Harry Hayward. Khaled scored his third of the season from a corner and Marcus added his second after he latched onto a defensive error. The first half came to an end with Woodbridge dominating all aspects of the game with goalkeeper Emile Burgoyne largely redundant.

Robbie Stephenson had been instrumental in much of our best play and he had caused the Somersham defence considerable problems on the right hand-side of defence and from his delivery at corners. By the end of the second half changes had been made to the original line-up and this did not disrupt the pattern of play too much and at this stage of the season is giving us an opportunity to try different combinations and to rest young legs!

Half Time 4-0

The second-half started in much the way the first had finished and Marcus added his third early on to become the fifth boy to net a hat-trick this season. Somersham then pulled a goal back with a well-taken header in what was probably the only time when the defence got pulled out of position. However rather than view this as a setback the team struck back immediately, Laurence scored two to take his tally into double-figures for the season and Aaron added his second with a wonderful piece of individuality – seeing the keeper out of position he lobbed him from just inside the opposition half.

Caspar Church gave width to the side in the second half and this enabled the boys to play some wonderful passes that opened up the Somersham defence. Somersham struck back and right on full-time scored a consolation goal with a shot wide of Emile.

This was another very encouraging performance and although the forwards and midfield are getting a lot of the limelight with their goals, particular credit must go to the defence, who have performed superbly and been responsible for creating a number of chances for the forwards. Ashley Archer, who had a superb game at right-back today, created some wonderful openings and was the creator of two of the teams goals.

The defence were also dealing with balls in the air and both Ben Hopkins and Ewan Wickson made several excellent headers. It is also heartening to see the defenders covering each other so much better than last season. Ewan and Ashley are both getting the hang of covering in behind. The boys’ tackling was also much stronger with Matt Read and Miles Kekwick leading the way.

There is still a long way to go and we mustn’t get carried away with this initial success, but all the signs are that the team will have a very successful season.

Thanks to all the support, particularly Jack Baldwin, Kieron Marshall and Sam Tripp, three boys not selected for today’s game.

Team: Burgoyne; Archer; Abdel-Aziz; Hopkins; Wickson; Hayward; Read; Thurlow; Stephenson; Taylor; Portaluri. Subs: Kekwick; Church; Dimuccio; Christie.