U18s: Scunthorpe United 1 – 0 Bradford City – Saturday 17th October 2015
By Sinead Cunningham
After a two-week break, we continued our league fixtures away to Scunthorpe on Saturday and after a strong performance, we were unlucky to leave on the losing side.
We played a young side, with three u16s in the starting line-up and it took us a while to find our feet. The home team won the toss and put us under pressure straight away however, their early free kick was well caught by Chandler Hallwood in goal, his first game since returning from injury.
Sumaili Cissa was fouled outside the box in the 5th minute, but the resulting free-kick taken by Xander McBurnie was comfortably cleared. Our first corner of the game, in the 7th minute, bounced off Cissa’s head to Luca Mellor but his cross was kicked away from goal.
The opening 15 minutes were end-to-end. Scunthorpe came closest to opening the scoring in the 16th minute when their header went narrowly wide of the post and Curtis Peters did well to break forward in the 21st minute and set up Cissa whose shot was blocked.
We passed the ball well and U16’s Casey Taglione had our best chance of the half on 27 minutes when McBurnie’s through ball fell perfectly to him but his effort went just wide of the post.
Hallwood did well to prevent Scunthorpe’s efforts from going in and we were awarded a free kick just outside the box in the closing minutes of the half when Cissa was brought down. Cissa’s kick was saved by the goal keeper, the rebound fell to Danny Devine but his cross was again cleared by the defence. We had a positive half and went in 0-0 at the break.
We made a bright start to the second half with Taglione narrowly missing the target in the in the opening minute. Devine’s cross was met by Taglione but his strike went just over the bar. McBurnie’s free kick minutes later was headed behind and we failed to make anything of the resulting corner.
Despite the good play, Scunthorpe looked a threat and took the lead on the hour mark, with an excellent strike from outside the box.
We continued to press however, Scunthorpe’s keeper made some excellent saves in the closing minutes to deny us the equaliser. Cissa’s 70th minute shot bounced off the post and Kesi Omolokun’s long range shot from the rebound went well wide of the goal. Danny Devine’s 81st minute effort was cleared off the line and Scunthorpe’s keeper made excellent saves to deny both Cissa and Taglione minutes later.
Next weekend we are at home to Notts County at Rawdon Meadows, Woodhouse Grove School, BD10 0NR – 11am K/O.