Team: Bond, Carver, Barnaby, Rose, Ollie, Charlie, Lunt, Porter, Brotherton, Mead, Seviour©
Subs: Peet, Cagilaba, Hardwick
Dugout: Fosu Gharban(M), Anthony Millard
MOM: Mead Goal: Mead
Frome Town U18 played a very good game here in possession of the ball but were overwhelmed in the end by the league leaders individual quality in attack and fitness and power all over the field. Frome were also hampered by the absence of several key starting players especially in defence with vice captain Brewster, defenders Wheeler & Wells as well as striker Pollock all unavailable.
Frome covered the absences by recalling flying fullback Ollie to left back, using speedy wide man Carver at fullback while Rose was reintroduced at centre back. This allowed the in form fullback/midfielder Charlie to sit alongside 3rd skipper Lunt who was now back from injury. Brotherton came into the attack on the right side to replace Pollock while Mead made his first start in his new false 9 role. Frome started off superbly with Mead pivotal in his new role. While Charlie & Lunt were very competitive in the midfield area, Porter broke from midfield well to join in with Mead & Seviour both of whom moved well and showed good link play. On the right Carver and Brotherton’s athleticism and pace saw them make several good challenges to break up play while Carver overlapped superbly. On the left side Ollie showed similar tenacity making several well timed sliding challenges to stop opposition attacks.
However as good as Frome looked in possession it was clear early on how threatening Winscombe’s attack would be with several fast breaks only just about stopped by Frome’s determination. Frome took the lead with a brilliant opening goal. The ball found Seviour who flicked the ball through superbly first time to Mead who got through and brilliantly executed a neat finish through the goalkeeper’s legs to put Frome 1-0 up. Frome continued to play well on the ball with several good breaks through Seviour ending in narrow offside calls. However Winscombe’s pace power and accuracy was clear and after struggling to clear a fairly routine attack Winscombe were able to level the score.
Very quickly another messy clearance resulted in another Winscombe goal. While Frome were still good in possession the difficulty in coping with the quality of Winscombe in attack was becoming apparent. Winscombe scored again to make it 3-1 at HT. The second half saw the game continue in a similar vein with plenty of good Frome possession and passing but Winscombe’s quality direct attacks through their attackers in the end Frome simply couldn’t cope with. A lobbed cross finish after the second phase of a corner made it 4-1 before an unstoppable 30 yard strike put Winscombe 5-1 up and then finally a low cross that was missed by defence and keeper made it 6-1. In conclusion Frome can actually be very pleased with this performance in terms of their play in possession.
The issues Frome had were the failure of wide attackers to drop in early when Frome were in possession meaning if play broke down Frome did not have overloads to counter press and win the ball back. On corners players were still marking posts, a fairly pointless position leaving Frome effectively 2 men down when actually trying to clear the ball and making it harder to defend the edge of the penalty area for the 2nd phase of the corner from which the 4th goal a rose. Frome also did not play enough diagonals or switch play enough despite there often being ample opportunity to do so. Frome also struggled with their 1v1 defending against the talented Winscombe attackers. However against the league leaders Frome gave their al and should be commended for their efforts with key players unavailable and the replacements coming in and giving a good account of themselves.