F.A.Premier Academy League
 	    Spurs Lodge, Chigwell.
       Saturday 10th November 2001, 12am

	    SPURS  V SOUTHAMPTON
      (White/Blue)    (Black/Red)
	  4-4-2      3-5-2

	  1(0)         0(0)

     Robert Burch 1 Daniel Trueman
    Stephen Kelly 2 Rob Channot
     Chris Herron 3 Craig Fullam
   Mark Hughes(C) 4 Gary McManus
     Ronnie Henry 5 Matt Rosier
  Paul O'Donoghue 6 Luke Byles
        James Lee 7 Darren Broxton
    Walter Thomas 8 Jonathan Mills
    Jamie Slabber 9 Jay Lucas
     Lee Barnard 10 Matthew Crowell
 David Galbraith 11 Andrei Pereplyotkin

     John Sutton 12 Aaron Davies
      (7)73Mins     (9)85Mins.
     Shwan Jalal 13 
Ghyslain Verdeux 14 Brett Poate
                 15 Shea Saunders

Goal - Galbraith 82.

It was a chilly morning despite the sunshine and the crowd of around sixty saw Spurs take on the Southampton team in their group A match. I joined Paul Smith and his son Greg for a tough fought game.

Henry and O'Donoghue played in the middle of a four man defence with Kelly on the right and Herron on the left. Hughes was today's captain in the absence of Bowditch, who was on international duty, and Thomas played in centre of midfield with Lee on the right and Galbraith on the left.

The first half was a physical battle which stopped most flowing football with players from both sides complaining to the ref. This did not stop the game being played at a fast pace with little for either keeper to do. The first real threat came from Lucas who curled a 25yd. freekick just wide of the right post after nearly 30 minutes. Barnard and Galbraith had good chances with the best from Slabber when he run onto a through ball, drew the keeper but saw his shot cleared off the line.

The second half was much better with Spurs starting to string passes together creating numerous chances. Hughes had a header well saved by the keeper and Henry had a header that beat the keeper but was headed off the line as they put Southampton under pressure. The Saints did manage to threaten Burch's goal a few times notably when Mills fires over from a corner, but Spurs brought on Sutton to increase the pressure.

Barnard dropped into the midfield in place of Lee allowing Sutton to lead the line giving him more space and almost immediately forced Trueman into a save down to his left. The goal came when Galbraith robbed Channot and beat the advancing Trueman low to his left.

Spurs were in command now but not able to add to that goal with Slabber missing the best chance from eight yards and Sutton had a good looking penalty claim turned down. Southampton did manage another good effort from Mills before the final whistle. We came through a tough hard game not playing well in the first half but Pat Holland must have sorted it out during the interval as the second half a lot better.

Man of the match would have to be Mark Hughes who led by example driving the team on from the start. Poor Wupert - those north London nobodies beat the best team on the south coast side.

Ray