FA Premier Academy League – South
     Spurs Lodge, Luxborough Lane, Chigwell
       Saturday 3rd February 2007, 11am
 
         SPURS     V     CARDIFF CITY          
    (White/Blue)          (All red)
         4-4-2              4-4-2
 
          0(0)              0(0)
 
     David Button  1 Scott Allison
     Cian Hughton  2 Dean Hudson
       Joe Martin  3 Ashley Buswell
  Daniel Hutchins  4 James Simpson
   Leigh Mills(C)  5 Lloyd Evans(C)
  Troy 
Archibald-Henville 6 Anthony Acheampong
     David Hutton  7 Anthony Cook
     Yasser Kasim  8 Jack Carlile
    Tomas Pekhart  9 Mark Jones
Kyle Fraser-Allen 10 James Upcott
 Andros Townsend  11 Paul Gallagher
 
      Alex Smith  12 Kyle Bassett
                     (7)81Mins.
    James Dalton  13 Josh Herring
 Takura Mtandari  14 Jonathan Brown
      (3)46Mins.     (11)56Mins.
     Luke Medley  15 Sam Wade
     (10) 74Mins.     (4)73Mins.
 
Coach:-
   A. Inglethope      G. Twose
 
Bookings:-            Acheampong  44 (Foul)
                      Carlile  44  (Arguing)   
Ref:- Mr. N. Field

Spurs kicked off attacking the South goal, and soon showed that they were just that little better than the Bluebirds by spending most of the time in the visitors half of the pitch. The first shot did not come until after ten minutes from Hutton as despite the pressure there was little for Allison to do. There was some good wing play with crosses from both Townsend and Hutton who swapped wings fairly early. The visitors broke out spasmodically with the pace of Cook but the Spurs defence was rarely stretched. Following a Cardiff free kick, the Ref booked Acheampong for an accumulation of fouls which led to Carlile also being booked for I assume speaking out to the ref.

Spurs took off Martin for the second half with Mtandari coming on at right back with Hughton moving over to the left. Fraser-Allen began to drift wide and actually put in two good crosses which is something I have not seen from him as he usually messes up such chances. He was substituted shortly after by Medley as Inglethorpe changed to two up front. Button had more work to do in this half as both sides played much of the game in the middle third. Pekhart missed a good chance from less than ten yards after good work from Townsend. With five minutes left, Spurs realised that they needed to win this game and pulled all the stops out and laid siege to the visitors goal with a string of corners and free kicks but failed to find the net.

This we dropped more points from a game which we should have won. Pekhart cannot play up front on his own as was shown again today and needs support. There was a lovely through ball to him which the keeper came out quickly and deflected as he shot. Pekhart got to the ball and was looking for a penalty with Acheampong tackling him. As the ball was cleared Acheampong looked down at him and called him a pussy. I could not argue with that.

Next week Spurs are away at Coventry before playing Watford at the Lodge the following Saturday. Before that the Reserves play table topping Reading at Stevenage on the 12th.

© Ray Lo

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