Walking wounded put up a fight

With mass unavailability, and a last minute cry-off due to carpet issues from Nick Johnson, a scratch M5 took to the pitch against Yardley who had won their first Fathoms league match. From a simple comparison of the two teams, it was easy to see that Yardley were (on average) 3 or 4 years older than our youngsters, and this was to be the telling factor during the match.

The game started with Yardley winning most of the 50/50s, and they scored their first after 8 minutes, reacting to a breakdown in play to give new GK Eamonn Jones (not Elliot!) no chance as the ball was slapped into the bottom corner. At this point, Sils raised their game, and looked to create a number of chances - Jacques Banton, Keira Johnstone and Jake Johnstone all creating chances but being thwarted by the home keeper.

It looked like it would remain 1-0 into half-time but with two minutes to go, disaster struck - a last minute intervention from Stewart Johnstone simply served to wrong-foot Jones in goal and leave the simplest of chances for Yardley to double their lead.

The second half remained an even battle, and whilst Yardley scored their third 5 minutes into the half, again reacting slightly quicker than the away defence to fire past Jones in goal, the Sils youngsters continued to work hard. The highlight of the last 20 minutes was Jacques Banton firing an exquisite through-ball to Samuel Johnson who cleverly rounded the Yardley keeper to score, leaving the second-half score at 1-1 (3-1 to Yardley overall); however, the low lights were (in no particular order) Stewart Johnstone, in clearing the ball, launching the ball into his son Jake Johnstone's head meaning he had to leave the field, Lukas Moment having to leave the field for a break as he was feeling very light-headed, and then finally Stephen Tabb being caught accidentally by a home stick drawing blood (and leading to a reasonable amount of swelling) from his nose. Hopefully none of these will lead to long-term absence as the youngsters today put in a sterling performance and are learning a lot from the step up to play against adults who are just a little harder in the tackle and do not hang back quite as much. If the squad continues to develop and learn as quickly as they are currently, the side will be turning performances into results before the end of the season.

Player of the Match for today goes to Kiera Johnstone for a fantastic battling display.