Bradford City u18s v Mansfield Town u18s
Saturday 23rd August 2014
Last Saturday saw us play our 1st home game of the season down at Rawdon Meadows.
We welcomed Mansfield Town who are in their first season back in the Youth Alliance League. After losing our opening fixture away at Lincoln City in midweek we were all eager to put things right and make sure we got back on the winning trail. On 2 minutes we got off to the best possible start when Reece Webb Foster finished off low in to the bottom corner to give us a 1-0 lead.
On 18 minutes Chandler Hallwood made a good save when he tipped over a header from a freekick. On 24 minutes Sumaili Cissa showed good feet to beat his man and cross for Reece Webb Foster to flick the ball narrowly wide. On 30 minutes Mansfield showed how dangerous they were from set pieces when they hit the bar with a free header from a wide free kick. We managed to hold on and go in to the break 1-0 to the good.
At half time we talked about not conceding silly free kicks and defend better as we felt this was one of Mansfield Towns strengths. At the start of the second half we passed the ball better and were unlucky not to extend our lead, after a fine run and shot by Rhys Jenkinson saw Mansfields goalkeeper pull off a fine save. As the half progressed further chances came and went, mainly to Reece Webb Foster ,although last ditch tackles and their goalkeepers heroics managed to keep the score to 1-0.
Mansfield still managed to cause us a few problems especially from set pieces and also from long balls down the channels but we held firm and on 88 minutes wrapped the game up. A quick counter attack saw Callum Chippendale cross for Jimmy Pollard to Volley home at the back stick scoring his first goal for the club.
Overall it wasn’t the best performance as we highlighted that we could have passed the ball better and also defend set pieces better but the positives were that we kept a clean sheet and came away with the 3 points. We have a free weekend this Saturday due to getting a bye in the 1st round of the Youth Alliance Cup, so our next game is on Saturday 6th September when we travel over to York City.
2 : Bradford City u18s
0 : Mansfield Town u18s