The County Representative Teams enjoyed a good day against their neighbours from Inner London Schools’ FA in last weekend’s SEESFA matches at Under-14, Under-15 and Under-16. Middlesex returned home with a win and two draws.
The Under-16 team took all three points from their game, winning 3-0, with the Under-15 squad drawing 2-2 and the Under-14 team drawing 1-1.
The Under-16s cruised to victory over a strong Inner London side. The early exchanges were even as both teams pressed forward but after 20 minutes Brent’s Ash Hameed broke the deadlock. Latching onto a through ball, he jinked past a defender before smashing the ball past the keeper from 25 years. Inner London fought back gallantly but Remy Gyimah extended the Middlesex advantage with a spectacular effort before half time – he collected the ball inside his own half beat two defenders before lobbing the stranded keeper from long range. The first half ended 2-0.
Middlesex went into the break 2-0 ahead and the second half was a hard fought affair. However, Middlesex were passing the ball confidently and Nyv Bogarie put the game beyond London, finding the net during a goal mouth scramble. The result was particularly pleasing as Middlesex had drafted in several new faces and so were delighted as much by the performance as the result. Team Manager Keith Young commented “I am especially pleased for the new boys in what was a great team performance”
Under-15 Manager, Mr Saxton, has kindly supplied the following synopsis of their match:
After a positive start to the game and some good controlled possession Middlesex found themselves behind to a break away goal from Inner London after a deflected shot left keeper George Simpson with no chance to keep it out. However, the team responded well and after many attempts Antonio Walker finally managed to score with a well placed shot. Another lapse in concentration saw Middlesex concede again with a well worked individual goal from Inner London and Middlesex found themselves trailing 2-1 at the half time interval.
After the interval, Middlesex came out all guns blazing and piled the pressure on in the second half leaving George fairly inactive in the second half and after a effort cleared off the line and a goal disallowed for offside we finally managed to pull level in the final minute when Imani Matthews scored from a corner kick. The team battled ever so well and thoroughly deserved a draw and can hopefully carry this performance on to the next match.
In the Under-14 fixture, Middlesex started the game brightly having two very good chances to take the lead. The best of these opportunities fell to Kraig McLeod (Kingsbury High School) who ran through, beat the keeper but then saw his shot hit the post. Soon afterwards, Inner London took control of the game but without looking likely to score.
However, Inner London took the lead early in the second half, scoring from a well worked passing move which ended with a good finish low to the keeper’s left from just inside the box. Middlesex then took control of the game, led by captain and man of the match Steven Cairns (Gunnersbury Catholic School). The goal that levelled the game came through good wide play from Jay Beckford, (Highgate Wood School) who slid a nice pass through to Anthony Williams, (Finchley Catholic High School) who ran on to the ball before being fouled for a penalty. Steven Cairns then stepped up and placed the ball to the keeper’s right. The draw was a fair result on the balance of play.
