ALTRINCHAM FC YOUTH (1) 3
PARK VIEW (Liverpool) YOUTH (2) 3
on Sunday, 12 August, 2007, at 2.30pm
LINE-UP
ALTRINCHAM YOUTH (Red & white striped shorts, black shorts, red socks):: 1.Ben RIGBY, 2. Jack KIMBER, 3. Ben OLIVER,, 4. Declan WAKEFIELD, 5. Tom COSGRAVE, 6. Dominic LILLIE, 7. Daniel KILLILEA, 8. Luke FLANAGAN, 9. Joe EDWARDS, 10. Sam MADELEY, 11. Chris FRANCIS. Subs: 12. Jimmy LADD, 14. Reza ZAREH-OURANG, 15. Rohin LALLI, 16. Simon WILLIAMSON, 17. Emanuel LADU, GK. Andrew JONES
REPORT
Altrincham were without Tom Bailey, Danny Browne, Paul Barry, Steven Crane and Alex Murphy due to holiday commitments, whilst Jason Melling-Fong was still recovering from injury.
On a sunny but breezy afternoon, Altrincham were a Liverpool youth side, Park View, whose coaching staff included former Altrincham FC first-team captain Mark Maddox. Mark was present as the game got under way and though Alty won an early corner through Madeley, Park View immediately went to the other end and won a corner themselves, conceded by Rigby. From this the visitors' number eight shot narrowly over the bar (8 mins). After Wakefield had done well to see off one attack, a fine ball from the visitors' number seven from the left curled into the path of their no.9 and he took the chance well to put his side one-up after nine minutes. Rigby, who had come out to block the ball was injured in the process and after treatment from Gareth Thomas was substituted by Andrew Jones (12 mins). The visitors were looking the sharper side and after they had won a corner they were soon back at Alty with a freekick from inside their own half on the far right of the pitch. The ball found the no.16 who headed, unchallenged, into the net to make it 2-0 to the Merseysiders (17 mins).
It could have been worse when the no.9 got past Jones but the covering Kimber was able to clear the ball from a few yards in front of the Alty goal line. Slowly Alty began to raise their game and Park View had to scramble away an Alty attack after 24 minutes. But then a ball forward up the middle was gathered by Jones who was caught very late by the no.16 who then inexplicably went for the Alty keeper. The referee produced a red card to reduce Park View to ten men (25 mins). Alty thought they had levelled after 28 minutes when Edwards netted from close range from Lillie's good cross from the right but the effort was ruled out for offside.
Now on his own up front, the visitors' no.9 nevertheless proved a handful for the home defence but then got injured and had to be substituted (35 mins). From Kimber's pass, a fine cross from Killilea was almost turned in at the back post by Edwards (37 mins) and then Madeley fired over after good work from Lillie (38 mins). Alty now made a change as Ladu came on for Edwards and, at the same time, the visitors also made a substitution (39 mins). After good work from Oliver, Madeley elected to shoot early but sliced his shot very wide (43 mins). As the game went into the first minute of added time, Madeley dribbled round the keeper to the left of goal but before he could poke the ball home he was brought down and awarded a spot-kick. After a lengthy delay as two Park View defenders were lectured, Madeley took the spot-kick himself, sending the keepr the wrong way to make it 1-2 (45+1 mins). But then as Alty pushed forward the visitors' no.8 was yellow carded. Worse was to follow seconds later as the visitors' number 2, who had committed a couple of earlier fouls, took Kimber down from behind and was shown a straight red card (45+6 mins). Nine man Park View were soon reduced to eight players when the number eight saw the red mist and scythed down an Alty player and he, too, saw a straight red card (45+9 mins). The match had not been particularly violent but the referee opted to enforce the rules rather than turn a blind eye as sometimes happens in friendlies.
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Above: Sam Madeley (left) nets from the spot..
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Right: Ben Rigby tips the ball over the bar..
So with a three-man advantage, neutrals would have expected Alty to run out comfortable winners. And when they levelled the scores just five minutes into the second period, it seemed that this would be the case. The goal came when Wakefield found Madeley who rose well to nod the ball on to Killilea and his firm shot hit the back of the net (50 mins). Madeley then won Alty a corner before Williamson came on, on the left, for Flanagan (52 mins). The Liverpool side continued to show good skills and determination despite their seemingly hopeless cause but Alty were helping them by giving the ball away too often. The Park View team made regular use of the rolling substitutions allowed for this friendly game and were dangerous on the break. This was seen when an Alty corner was cleared and the no.7 got free, his shot needing a very slight deflection to send it narrowly wide for a corner. Soon afterwards their no.10 got through but was seen off by Alty's last defender. However, Alty won two corners after the hour mark and from the first of these they had the ball in the net but were ruled to be offside. Before the second visitors' corner, Zareh-Ourang replaced Cosgrave in Alty's central defence (67 mins) and four minutes later Lalli came on for Madeley. It was now one-way traffic for Alty as Killilea blasted a shot from 12 yards which took a slight deflection for a corner. The Park View defence failed to deal with the corner and it dropped for Ladu to tap home at the back post and give Alty the lead (72 mins).
Five minutes later Alty brought goalkeeper Rigby back on as he had recovered from his early injury. Before the new keeper could get involved again, Park View won a freekick 20 yards out on the right front of the penalty box. With no defenders on the posts, the visitor's number three sent in an excellent freekick which found the top corner to Rigby's left to level the scores at 3-3 (79 mins).
Alty continued to let the eight men of Park View more than match them and the Robins soon conceded a freekick in almost exactly the same spot from which the equaliser had come. This time, however, the no.3's effort hit the wall (82 mins). Jack Kimber, who had a good game at right-back then got forward but saw his 25-yarder saved. Park View went close moments later when their no.10 fired narrowly wide from the same distance. Zareh-Ourang was then dispossessed as he tried to dribble out of defence but the danger was cleared before, at the other end, Francis fired narrowly over from distance (88 mins). Next, Lillie got to the ball just ahead of the keeper and from Lalli's resulting cross, Killilea got in a good 20-yard header which went just wide. But the visitors still threatened to the very end as a superb long ball found the no.10 who won his side a late corner (89 mins). But the final whistle went soon afterwards to leave the sides locked at 3-3, a result which the visitors will have been much happier to achieve than the hosts.
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