Harrow Youth League Division 3
Concorde Rangers 3 v 6 Kensington Dragons U15A
Scorers Pablo x 2, Dean x 2 , Korey, Joel (Pen)
MOM Filmon
We arrived at QPR’s training ground at Harlington and having negotiated our way past the security man and a Columbian TV crew I thought they were waiting for us but turns out Columbia’s national team were training there that morning. After changing and walking over to the pitch the Columbian team coach arrived with James Rodriguez and crew. A few players went hunting for selfies but I think drew a blank.
The first half against Concorde Rangers saw a lot of our players still being star struck and their heads were not in the game. We started ok but were guilty of not taking our chances as players chose the wrong options or failed to get off telling shots and the R’s keeper was largely untested. We were also guilty of losing the ball in midfield and were punished as the R’s counter attacked from one such opportunity and got behind our defence and scored from a deflected shot.
The Dragons equalised when Dean’s persistence paid off as he won a couple of challenges and slotted home the equaliser. The R’s responded and regained the lead with a penalty when their attacker was tripped by our defender in the box and a good penalty just beat our keeper Zac into the bottom left hand corner. The R’s hung onto the lead until the half time break.
The old saying of football is a game of two half applied to the Dragons on this occasion as the introduction of Joel at halftime changed the game as his short sharp passing kept the ball moving and good team possession began to tire the opposition midfield (they only had one sub) and opened up space for Korey, Bailey and Pablo to exploit. We were soon level as a great through ball from Bailey found Pablo in the box and he unleashed an unstoppable shot into the roof of the net.
The Dragons were now in charge and took the lead with another great finish from Korey and a second for Dean as he headed in from a corner. Our fifth goal was another powerful shot from Pablo which found the back of the net. At this point we were attacking in waves with Magnus marauding forward from left back and Emmanuel also nearly getting on the score sheet. The R’s responded and made it 5-3 as an attacker took full advantage of a lucky deflection to cut our lead. It could have been a nail biting final 10 mins but for 2 great saves from Zak and cool, composed defending by Filmon stopped our lead being further eaten into. The Dragons went 6-3 ahead when Josh JD was tripped in the box and Joel stepped up and converted the spot kick to seal the victory.