Third time lucky for U12s against Bessingby

KENSINGTON DRAGONS U12s  4  V  1  BESSINGBY PARK RANGERS

The Dragons faced the team sounding like a side straight out of the pages of Roy of the Rovers for this Saturday morning kick off, Bessingby Park Rangers. We’d already played them twice this season, once in the league and once in the cup and lost on both occasions. And with the visitors sitting just one place above us in the league we knew this was going to be a tough test. For once we were afforded the luxury of an almost full squad to choose from. The only notable exception saw Chester switching from midfield to right back. The rest of the team and formation was the one that had served us so well since we’d returned to playing after the enforced winter break.

With the sun shining across the freshly marked out pitch we had the perfect conditions as the referee got the game underway. The Dragons started brightly and within the first 2 minutes came close to taking the lead when Felix tried an audacious shot from the edge of the box that looked destined for the top corner, only for it to ping off the crossbar. An attempt that Roy Race himself would have been proud of. (In his playing days before he lost his left foot in that fateful helicopter crash, obviously).

The game was evenly matched in the early stages and it became apparent that Bessingby were playing with a high defensive line and looking to ‘launch’ (their coach’s words not mine) the ball through the middle for their strikers to chase after. They had one attempt that whistled over Enrique’s bar but apart from that nothing that worried the Dragons defence. The home team were taking a more cultured approach to unlocking their opponents and were looking to get the ball out to the wide areas for our pacey wingers to get behind Bessingby. But it seemed every time the Dragons were through on goal the linesman’s fluorescent flag shot into the air and came to the visitor’s rescue. A few of these decisions were somewhat dubious to say the least. However the trigger-happy linesman couldn’t save the visitors for much longer and when Aziz played Ilya through with a slide-rule pass he cut inside and buried the ball beyond the keeper for the crucial first goal.  Melchester, sorry the Dragons, were starting to control the game now and when Joe won the ball in midfield and drove forward the only way the opposition knew how to stop him was to bring him down. The free kick was awarded and as Tyler lined it up we wondered if it was a little beyond his range, as it was a good few yards outside the penalty area. But we needn’t have worried, Tyler was wearing his brand new magic, white boots and his shot flew over the keeper into the top of the net. The Dragons took their 2 nil lead into the break and when the action resumed they picked up where they had left off. This time it was Sidney, The Postman, (he always delivers) who raced down the right flank and crossed low and hard into the heart of BPR’s box for George to turn in for 3 nil. And by the time Felix had christened his new boots with the Dragon’s fourth goal the game was effectively over. The visitors did manage a late consolation goal direct from a free-kick but that was only their second attempt on target, the Dragons were so dominant. If results go for us we could be up to the dizzy heights of 4th in the league. (A Champions League place no less) And if we can convince Wealdstone to play one of our outstanding games and beat them, well that really would be Roy of the Rovers stuff.