Brockham and Horsley in Seven Goal Thriller.
Brockham Barbarians U10s travelled to Tom's Field to meet Horsley Football Club in the Epsom & Ewell League. Both teams were buoyed by strong victories in their first games and for those that thought the encounter looked full of promise, it certainly didn't disappoint.
Brockham were out of the gate quickly and an early strike one minute into the game by Callum Holder forced a good save from the Horsley keeper. Chances continued to come for both teams and with five minutes on the clock, a failed clearance by Brockham led to a goal-mouth scuffle and Horsley broke the deadlock to lead 1-0.
Brockham's Tom Ambrose, Lily Turner and Arun Watkins controlled the midfield and started to push the game back to Horsley. At eleven minutes Ambrose made a sweeping pass to Holder giving him the opportunity to run at the Horsley defence, drawing players towards him he turned and squared the ball to Lily Turner who clinically converted for Brockham levelling the score at 1-1.
The goal had the right impact on Horsley who began a continuous attack the Brockham goal, some very strong defending by Bailey Osborne (Capt.) and Ben MacKenzie kept the score level. However after fifteen minutes, Horsley broke from the halfway line and found the space to snatch a goal and take a 2-1 lead. From the next kick-off Brockham were now resurgent with Watkins and Holder combining with some fine passing to allow Holder to slot home Brockham's second just before the whistle blew for half time.
The new half saw William Glen and Ben Austin join the field for Brockham and within three minutes a mistake by Brockham resulted in an own goal giving the lead at 3-2 back to Horsley. The game was starting to become stretched and both teams played some excellent football but the second half started to see some tired legs. With five minutes left, Brockham's goalkeeper, Josh Snow, made a lunging save to push the ball over the cross bar to keep his team in the game, a quick series of passes from Brockham's midfield enabled Callum Holder to pick up the ball and skip past the Horsley defence to drill home his second levelling the score at 3-3.
With just a couple of minutes left on the clock, both teams could sense the opportunity of a late goal to win the match and attempts flowed at either end. A late long range Horsley strike saw the ball skip into the bottom right hand corner of the Brockham goal giving the lead to Horsley. Within moments the full-time whistle sounded although both teams played great flowing football, Brockham left the pitch feeling they deserved more.
Man of the Match: Callum Holder
Brockham: Josh Snow, Bailey Osborne (Capt.), William Glenn, Callum Holder, Tom Ambrose, Ben MacKenzie, Lily Turner, Arun Watkins, Ben Austin
Match Reporter: David Ambrose
