TEAM: Locke, Charlie, Barnaby, Wheeler, Rose, Cagilaba, Brewster, Rudi, Seviour©, Porter, Hardwick. Subs: Ollie, Pack, Mead. Dugout: Fosu Gharban(M), Joe Rendle, Curtis Goodwin, Tom Bond, Anthony Millard
MOM: Charlie
A much changed Frome Town U18 played superbly here to get back on track after a disappointing opening day loss to a strong Corsham side.
With Frome extremely disappointing in the central midfield area in their opening day loss to Corsham in terms of movement, the entire central midfield was changed along with the keeper, 3 out of the 4 defenders were changed and 2 out of the 3 starting strikers were altered.
In total 7 new players were brought into the starting lineup while skipper Seviour was moved from midfield to attack & vice skipper Brewster was moved from central defence to defensive midfield. Frome controlled the first half and missed a succession of chances something which almost came back to haunt them in the second half.
With Cagilaba & Brewster dominant in the holding midfield area and Rudi providing a nice link to the attack Frome had much better possession and were able to prevent counter attacks in addition. From goal kicks the key set piece in terms of ball retention keeper Locke was given enough movement and options by the defence and midfield to ensure Frome dominated proceedings in terms of the ball.
Welton were solid and did threaten and play some good football from the back themselves but Wheeler and Barnaby repelled any attacks effectively. Skipper Seviour roamed inside constantly from his nominal right side striker role creating a central overload that made counter pressing & short passing easy for Frome to achieve as he adapted well to his new role.
In addition Seviour’s clever movements opened up space in the wide right area for the revelation of the game flying fullback Charlie to raid forward and show excellent touch control dribbling and passing. The first half saw Frome miss several clear cut chances with Rudi, Porter, Seviour, Hardwick & Cagilaba all missing clear cut chances Hardwick somehow not converting an almost open goal. Locke was forced into making a couple of good saves to keep the score 0-0 at HT.
The second half saw Welton come into the game a more. Frome made two changes relatively early in the half with Mead coming into roaming midfield for Rudi and Ollie coming on at left back for the injured Rose. Ollie overlapped superbly down the left cutting back onto his right foot on several occasions to deliver useful right foot crosses while on the other side Charlie continued his right back master class.
However, Welton as mentioned earlier were playing well and hit a shot that crashed off the bar and bounced on or over the line before Locke collected for a near escape. Frome then went straight up the other end and scored a disallowed offside goal after Porter knocked in a rebound after Hardwick’s rasping drive. However Porter was not to be denied and after a superb shimmie on the half way line Porter got clean through and scored to put Frome 1-0.
With Pack also now on for Barnaby at centre back the Frome started to press for a second with Seviour going close before Porter fed Hardwick who drove the ball home clinically from 20 yards for 2-0 Frome. Frome now saw the game out by switching to 532 with Brewster dropping back into defence and Seviour into midfield.
In fact Frome finished the match with just 10 men after Charlie came off with a late injury which saw Porter playing the last 10 minutes as lone striker as Hardwick filled in at wingback as Frome saw out the win against a good Welton side.