Boys U14 Vs Bishop’s Stortford and Upminster

Under 14 boys enjoyed mixed success in the late autumn sunshine in Bishop’s Stortford.

First up they play Stortford and dominated much of the game with the he Hertford defence and goalkeeper seeing little action in the first half. The Hertford midfield fought hard to win the majority of fifty fifty balls and found good space to play some nice passing hockey creating a number of chances on goal. We had four guests from Welwyn Garden City playing for us and it was great to see the boys from both clubs combining seamlessly from the outset and looking as though they played together week in week out.

Riley Skillett, making the most of the opportunity to play up front rather than his usual right back Saturday position opened the scoring after narrowly missing a couple of early chances and a second goal from George Reilly saw Hertford make the half time break 2-0 up. The second half was a more even affair with Stortford starting to press forwards but the Hertford defence held firm and cleared their lines well. At the other end a goal mouth scramble saw the Hertford pressure succeed again as Finley Goode found himself free on the post to push home a well fought ball which came across the face of goal. Final result a 3-0 win to Hertford.

Turning straight around for the second game Hertford came up against a fresh and well organised Upminster team. Upminster are probably the strongest ont the U14 Essex league sides and they moved the ball around effectively. For the first 6 minutes Hertford held their own but with Upminster pushing more and more players forward, Hertford then conceded three quick goals just before half time. The second half was more even with Hertford boys settling to soak up the sustained pressure. There was some excellent tackling once again from Joshua Scott, James Furse and also Lawrence Robinson finding himself out of position in the Hertford defence. A quick break midway through the half saw some skilful passing moves out of the Hertford defence and through midfield culminating with a further stoke on goal from Finley. This was quickly responded to by Upminster with their fourth goal with the match ending 4-1 but this marked a great improvement from the defeat to the same team at Chelmsford a few weeks earlier.

Team
Will Reilly, George Reilly, Alex Anson, Finley Goode (all WGC), Jack Bentley, Joshua Scott, Arthur Davey, Matthew Attfield, James Furse, Lawrence Robinson, Tom Weller, Cormac Green, Riley Skillett.