Match Report : Joergen Jaehnig

Result : Southgate U18 Boys 7-1 Teddington U18 Boys

Goal Scorers : Barney Collier (2) | Lucas Jaehnig (2) | Tom Murphy (1) | Daman Bansal (1) | Oscar Prior (1)

MOM : Daman Bansal (closely followed by joint runners-up Oscar Prior and Barney Collier)

Those who made their way to fortress Trent Park on this chilly Sunday afternoon to watch another U18 Boys North/South London derby were certainly not disappointed when presented with maybe a less thrilling encounter than the previous week, but an utterly dominant and simply brilliant performance by the boys in red.

Needing a good 5-10 mins to settle into their game against a physical Teddington side, the team eventually started to turn up the heat on their opposition, and when they did, they did so in style. The midfield engine around Giles Woodland, Vivek Dongha, Tom Murphy and Jackson Trathen started to turn over ball after ball and one of the counterattacks led to the first penalty corner of the game. Tom Murphy stepped up and converted powerfully. The gate had taken the lead. Only minutes later the unstoppable Barney Collier was through on goal and could only be brought down with a bad tackle. The resulting penalty flick was coolly converted by Daman Bansal. 2-0 to the boys in red.

More and more inspired by the lead and their own play, they boys worked themselves up into a real attacking frenzy Jurgen Klopp and his Liverpool team would have been proud of. Barney Collier, eager to get on the scoresheet himself, with a quick turn at the top of the circle, a powerful reverse hit and the ball zoomed past the keeper’s head. 3-0 and with every goal the team seemed to be getting hungrier for more. Not to be outdone by his striker team mates, Oscar Prior received the ball in the circle and slotted it into the bottom corner with his trademark lift-and-volley making it 4 to the good guys.

The author could describe many brilliant passing moves which led up to these goals but that would not leave any space on this website for other match reports. Hence, straight to number 5 – Lucas Jaehnig stepping up to the second penalty corner of the game and the ball zoomed into the net making it 5-0. Whilst having mentioned mostly attacking heroics up to this point, this was a team performance playing outstanding hockey. Veysal Demir kept anything that came his way nicely out of the goal, Sam Marshall bossed the very capable opposition centre forward, Sam Ziff and Ruben Straat kept their strikers equally nicely in check and Josh Chandler and Noah Lavy kept pacing up and down the wings making Mo Farah look like running at snail pace. 5-0 at halftime, Game, Set and Match already.

The second half started as expected with Teddington ferociously trying to attack the home side’s goal. However, 5 mins into that half, the boys in red made it clear that they would not lean back. A long-range pass found Barney Collier in the circle who obviously with full intention topped the ball so that it would bounce into the far corner. 6-0 and Collier had earned a deserved second goal.
On the follow the guests tried to press for a consolation goal while the hosts tried to up the tally. One of the breaks resulted in another penalty corner. Lucas Jaehnig slotted a rocket into the side netting also marking his second goal of the game and upping the score to 7-0. Teddington carried on trying to give their all for a goal, however they got denied numerous times by Tom Fish who was between the posts in the second half. Eventually the guests got their consolation goal through an unstoppable penalty corner themselves marking the final score of 7-1.

Special thanks as usual to manager James Marshall as well as the excellent umpires Neil Prior and Mark Hubbard, who despite the chilly afternoon should have had an entertaining match.