Somerset Floodlit Youth League – South Division Frome Scorers [Porter, Seviour] (HT 0-1) Frome Town U18 (Floodlit) Red card: Carver 85’ Team: Locke, Carver, Boulton, Brewster, Clacee, Farley, Lunt, Seviour©, Pollock, Crossman, Porter . Subs: Barnaby Mori Rudi Dugout: Fosu Gharban(M), Rich Gould
MOM: Locke
Frome Town U18 played superbly as they beat previously unbeaten & current league leaders Winscombe at their ground just beyond Cheddar gorge. Frome were missing the experienced defender Trainer along with injured regular central defender Pack leading to call-ups for aerial titan Clacee & fullback Barnaby. Frome also rotated their goalkeepers with Locke taking his turn in goal this week with keeper Bond rested.
Frome’s only tactical change from the previous week was usual wide attacker Crossman started in the false 9 role with Porter & Pollock occupying the left & right sided half spaces in attack. The players were also reminded this week of their exact role within the zonal marking scheme for corners both attacking and defending after the previous week’s defensive calamity during the 4-4 draw with Wellington.
Frome started the game sharply with Pollock rampaging down the right on several occasions as his pace and direct running forced issues. Pollock was receiving a lot of ball in the inside right channel mostly as a consequence of Crossman’s intelligence in overloading central midfield from his false 9 position this gave Frome the ability to get their central midfield players Seviour & Farley on the ball ready to play forward after Crossman’s link play. Farley in particular was then hitting inch perfect through passes and diagonals for Crossman & Porter to feed off in the half spaces. But it must be stressed all of this was possible only because of Crossman’s excellent overloading of midfield to link with Frome’s creative midfielders to then create opportunities to play forward. It should also be noted that Crossman also played some very perceptive through passes as well.
Pollock had about 3 or 4 opportunities to cross the ball off Farley’s through passes but could not quite find the final ball. Pollock also went through 1v1 a further 3 times but again could not quite find a finish despite his excellent movement to get in behind. It was left to Porter in Frome’s left sided half space to break the deadlock. Farley again was the instigator after receiving possession after more good linking play from false 9 Crossman. Farley then slipped the ball in-between the centre back and fullback on the left side and Porter ran on to finish with aplomb for 1-0 Frome at HT.
Frome mixed it up a bit at the start of the second half with Pollock now central with Crossman wider. Frome found it slightly harder to build up now, a mixture of the slope, fired up opposition who were now try to press very high to disrupt Frome’s buildup & the loss of Crossman’s intuitive central midfield overload from the false 9 position with Pollock being more of a natural target man when centralized. To add to this Clacee & Pollock Frome’s best two headers of the ball were forced off early in the half with fatigue and injury respectively.
Given Frome’s previous issues with defending high balls and set pieces keeper Locke needed to take command, which he did with style. Locke dominated his penalty area when direct balls came into his box. He also was superb and brave with his distribution constantly finding unmarked players with both short and longer chipped passes into central midfield, dropping strikers & touchline wide fullbacks. His bravery in possession when starting moves from the back allowed Frome to get control back along with natural midfield player Rudi now on at false 9 to help augment midfield. Final sub Mori was also on by this point adding fresh legs and quick feet to the midfield.
Indeed it was Rudi, again in false 9, who helped build up Frome’s game sealing goal. After picking up a pass from Porter, Rudi dummied to pass one way before feeding Lunt who in turn found skipper Seviour who thundered home from just inside the box to give Frome a 2-0 lead.
With minutes, remaining Frome’s flying fullback Carver received a rather harsh red card despite seemingly acting as peacemaker during a relatively innocuous coming together. However, Frome saw the game out to go second 3 points behind Winscombe with two games in hand.
Frome’s area to work on in their next training session will be finishing patterns both from through balls and crosses to try to improve their conversion rate of shots & crosses to goals.