Report

It was League Cup Final day this Sunday and Alveston Juniors U12’s were unlucky not to lift the cup against bogey side Norton Lindsey on a good surface at Ajax Park. Alveston deserve a lot of credit for the way they played football after going one down early on and despite the setback the Claret & Blues continued to pass the ball and played with great spirit and determination, dominating large periods of the first half. Jordan Rooke was very busy down the left side and his chasing and hassling resulted in a number of corners the best of which Finlay Hatch was unlucky not to convert. As the pressure kept mounting, Alveston were awarded a free kick from a dangerous position on the left just outside the penalty area, Max Taylors sublime free kick curling from 30 yards could only be tipped onto the bar by the keeper for a corner. Alveston’s domination was finally rewarded when another excellent corner from George Bowyer was met perfectly at the far post by Tom Durnian who thumped the ball into the top left hand corner with his head. The Alveston defensive unit of William Pound in goal, Kai Stott, Charlie Bromley, Harry Huckerby and Andrew Barnes deserve an enormous amount of credit for reducing the Lindsey chances to tame efforts from outside the box for most of the game and in the second half Alveston continued to show the most guile and were unlucky twice when Taylor again hit the bar from 30 yards and again from a parry off the keeper from closer in. Harry Collinge and Will Foley both made excellent contributions and Stephen Rickett showed some great touches down the middle of the park and went close with an effort from 15 yards which was gathered by the keeper. Football can be a cruel game and when a defensive clearance was parried into the path of Alveston’s Bowyer, he was clean through on goal and he showed great skill and composure in lobbing the keeper for what would have been a decisive goal, however the linesman ruled it offside and with only a minute to go the game was taken away from Alveston with a slick finish from just inside the box, as if only to demonstrate the thin line between success and failure.