What started brightly ended in disappointment as Brockham Badgers U16A were defeated for the first time this season in a 4-2 home defeat to Kew Association Youth.
Brockham were out of the blocks quickly. Man of the match Sam Lloyd set up both early goals as Brockham took a two goal lead within the first ten minutes. Both were slide rule passes behind a lethargic back line, and finished excellent first by Jack Coppin, and then by Michael Cheeseman five minutes later. Seemingly, the Badgers were cruising.
On fifteen minutes however, James Rabbetts was lucky to stay on the pitch. The Kew striker had beaten the off-side trap and was bearing down on his 18 yard box. Rabbetts rushed out to close the angle, and took the attackers legs from under him as he’d nipped the ball past the prostrate Rabbetts. Had the fouled striker not immediately got up and distracted the referee with a tirade of verbal objections then Brockham would have been down to ten men. Instead a free kick was awarded to Kew 20 yards from goal and the striker went in the book instead of the Badgers’ keeper.
Rabbetts saved well from the following set piece but Brockham were slow to react to the loose parried ball and Kew got their revenge from short range to narrow the deficit to just one goal.
There was a nervous ten minutes as Brockham steadied themselves but they controlled the game for large parts in the lead up to half time, but did start show worrying signs of things to come by losing the ball too easily in midfield and the defence standing too far off Kew players in possession. Whilst the balance of the game to the interval was marginally in favour of Brockham, Kew were certainly not out of this match.
The second half began well enough for the home side. Captain Sam Lloyd and his strike partner Cheeseman were leading from the front. Both were running sometimes 30 or 40 yards to chase down the ball and put in strong tackles to ensure Kew had to fight for everything. Unfortunately support from midfield and defence in transition was sometimes wasteful. Winning the ball Brockham should have imposed themselves, instead they too often lashed a foot at a blind pass and gave away possession too easily. When closing down play they too often dived into a tackle or allowed a player to turn and run, and the combination of profligacy and sloppiness punished them in the end.
Three goals in a twenty minute period put Kew ahead by two and Brockham were now chasing the game. For the last ten minutes they were camped in the Kew half. Joe Silver, Coppin, and Cheeseman were all menace as a top line but it was all too little too late, and Brockham can consider this three points wasted.
Man of the Match: Sam Lloyd