Somerset Floodlit Youth League
Chard U18 (Floodlit)] 4 – 0 (HT 1-0) Frome Town U18 (Floodlit)
Team: Locke Russell Boulton Pack Luther Mead Lunt Seviour© Pollock Crossman Porter
Subs: Gould Hardwick Rudi
Dugout: Fosu Gharban(M), Rich Gould
Frome Town U18 spectacularly imploded as the last unbeaten run in the division was smashed by a determined, skillful Chard team. Frome went into this key match missing 6 key players. Frome travelled over to Chard shorn of experienced defender Trainer, aerial powerhouse Clacee, playmakers Mori & Farley along with athletic defenders Carver & Brewster all regular squad members and all missing. Frome gave league debuts to fullbacks Russell and Luther while Mead came in to sit in midfield while Pack shifted from fullback to cover at centre back. Keeper Locke was rotated into goal as Bond was rested from the previous week’s 4-0 win.
Frome started the game reasonably well with Russell showing well at right back. Seviour hit some nice through passes for Porter & Pollock in the interior corridors while Mead gave a composed display protecting the defence intelligently with good positioning along with some decent tackles and distribution. In this opening phase of the game Frome created two key moments as Porter got through 1v1 with the Chard keeper on two occasions, one effort was saved and crucially the second 1v1 was controversially ruled out for offside despite seemingly being a good goal.
Then with half time approaching disaster struck for Frome as a speculative shot squirmed under keeper Locke to give Chard the lead and to be honest Frome never really recovered their composure from this moment. Chard contrived to hit the post and bar just before half time to leave the score at 1-0 at half time.
Frome brought on Hardwick and Gould in midfield and centre back just after half time for Luther and the rather unlucky Mead who had protected the defence diligently in the first half. Frome conceded the killer second off a cross and header before a through ball was not cleared for the killer 3rd. Frome now desperate and panicking and struggling to play out as they had been since conceding the first goal tried a switch to 532 to stem the tide with Rudi coming on for defender Pack. The change to an unfamiliar formation didn’t stem the tide however with another wide free kick delivery leading to the 4th goal.
Frome were disappointed with the defeat but on reflection are delighted with their brilliant first half to the season, currently joint top of the division a situation they would have gladly taken at the start of preseason as they looked to build an entirely new team after losing most of their squad to age. Frome’s players have to be commended for putting up a genuine challenge for the title up to this point despite this being their first season back in the floodlit leagues after playing in the Sunday youth leagues in the previous seasons.
Frome’s main issue in this game was the need to execute the correct patterns to build from the back with the well structured high press from Chard proving difficult to escape once Frome had gone behind. A simple revision of the patterns required for overload should suffice.
MOM: Russell