Herne Bay United u13 travelled to Norwich on Sunday for three games sitting in 2^nd place in the league & hoping to maintain their position as title contenders.

The first game saw them play 3rd place Peterboro’ with HBU having their usual slow start and seeming to lack the desire to win the match. HBU went ahead through a deflected own goal and continued to miss many of the goal scoring opportunities created. The game was evenly balanced with HBU containing their opponents until a deflected shot allowed Peterboro’ to tap the ball into the net from just a few centimetres. The lack of urgency in HBU play did not change and in the end it was the fine goalkeeping by U11 keeper Harrison that kept the scores level. Harrison was making his debut in the U13 team and his performance was the positive aspect from a disappointing result and bodes well for the u13 team for next season. A good game for the crowd but not the performance that was hoped for. Final score 1 -1.

After the first game the UTD players went out to face local rivals Herne Bay with a much more determined attitude and this was reflected in all aspects of the game with HBU never allowing their opponents time to settle on the ball by passing and moving with greater purpose. This was reflected in the score line and HBU were 4-0 in the first few minutes and while the scoring rate slowed down the final score was 15-1 to HBU, with Harrison making many fine saves throughout the game to restrict HB to only one goal.

The final game of the day was against a Norwich side that had struggled in their earlier matches and this continued to be the case with HBU creating many chances and as in the previous game the finishing was good, all players scored and improved as the day progressed with HBU running out victors 18-0.

 

HBU finished and enjoyable day’s play undefeated, in 2^nd place in the league with one more tournament to go. The most pleasing parts of the day were the improvement in team and individual play by the out players, with all the players getting on the scoresheet and the goal keeping performance of Harrison who conceded only 2 goals.

 

Team: Harrison Raven (GK), (C) Jamie McVey(14), Oli Hudson(6), George Daly(6), Luke Huckstepp(3), Sian Emslie(5).

 

HBU play in the final tournament of the season in June with Rhys, Archie and Noah expected to join the squad.

---