FA Premier Academy League U19 Group A
		Spurs Lodge, Chigwell
	Saturday 16th February 2002, 12am k.o.

		SPURS     V   BRISTOL CITY
          (White/Blue)        (Red/Red)
  		4-4-2         3-5-2

		  1(1)        0(0)

	 Paul Rutherford 1 David Coupe
	    Daniel Perry 2 John Butler
	    Ricky Dobson 3 Matthew Aubrey
	     Lee Barnett 4 Craig Loxton
	 Danny Foster(C) 5 Peter Folkes
	     David Tyrie 6 Ryan Harley
	      Joe Watson 7 Joe Aninsah
	  Jonathon Black 8 Cole Skuse
	 Michael Malcolm 9 Tom Jacobs
	    Mark Yeates 10 Leroy Lita
	     Mario Noto 11 Barry Elmore

	    David Hicks 12 Jordan Pollinger
			   (7)79Mins
	     Nicky Eyre 13 Grant Monelle
			   (5)79Mins
	     Owen Price 14 Sam Bailey
             (7)77Mins
	 Gareth Jenkins 15
	       Tim Ford 16

Scorer - Malcolm 10

Booked - Lita 45 violence of the tongue

It was a sunny morning which started with a chilly wind but warmed up as the game wore on. Andy Porter was there as well as Ray Clemence and a number of the Spurs staff. Colin Calderwood and John Gorman as well as Teddy spent some time watching as Jimmy Neighbour's lads had a hard fought game.

Spurs lined up with Foster and Tyrie at the back flanked by Perry on the right and Dobson on the left. Barnett and Black played in the centre with Watson and Noto outside of them. Malcolm and Yeates again played up front as in the last game I saw.

The game started with Spurs playing with the sun at their backs and they showed good attacking play from the start. Both the front two harried the back three of the Robins defence with support from Noto. The midfield was crowded with a lot of the play breaking down due to the quick closing down of players on the ball and it turned into a physical battle with little creative football, but a lot of the lost possession was due to careless balls when not under pressure at the back.

Spurs took the lead from a corner following a fierce drive by Yeates that Coupe turned round the post. Barnett played a one two with Noto before centering for Yeates to flick on to Malcolm at the far post who slotted home. Spurs should have doubled the lead when a dummy by Malcolm allowed Noto to peirce the defence, but his square ball was completely missed by Black 10 yards out.

The second half saw the visitors begin to get their game together and cause more of a threat to Rutherford and had a couple of good chances to equalise. It wasn't until after City made a double substitution to increase their attacking threat that they allowed Spurs back in by giving them more room at the back. Price came on and played down the right and his second run produced a great low ball across the face of the goal which Malcolm just failed to reach.

This was a scrappy affair with Spurs unable to maintain possession or string a couple of passes together. This coupled with the many unforced errors meant that the good work by the front two was restricted by a lack of service as well as undue pressure at the back. Spurs looked to have the better team but struggled to dominate. Next week it is the U-19 at home to Chelsea.

Ray