U9 Vipers
Rotherfield's resurgence continued this week with a convincing 6-1 win over Meadway Youth.
The opening ten minutes saw chances for Liam Ruiz and Adam Fearnside, but the breakthrough came when Owen Lowe was on hand to knock in the rebound after Ruiz had fired in a good shot with his unfavoured right boot. United added a second almost immediately when Ruiz got on the end of a Fearnside cross to score his thirteenth of the season.
With a two goal lead, United began to relax and play some good team football; the third goal came just before the break and was easily the best of the game; Ruiz picked the ball up in his own half and knocked it down the line to Jack Stevens, who played in a lovely left-foot cross which was met first time by Lowe and buried in the bottom right corner.
After the break, Rotherfield almost added a fourth when a Harry Sayer throw-in was played into the box by Fearnside where it was met by Stevens whose shot just grazed the base of the post. Several minutes later however, Stevens made no mistake with a shot which beat the keeper from a very tight angle.
Despite United's dominance, Meadway kept battling and with ten minutes to go got themselves a goal back; Rotherfield's rearguard of Green, Shah, Williams and Hylton had comfortably absorbed everything Meadway could throw at them but there was little they could do about the goal which was struck well from the edge of the penalty area into the roof of the net.
Fearnside added two more before the final whistle; the first bouncing somewhat fortuitously over the stranded keeper, but the second a rasping shot from outside the box.
The fairplay award was given to Ruiz and Stevens for good team-play, both on and off the ball.
The improvement in overall team-play this week was visible again and its great to see the lads learning in training and then carrying that through to the weekend game. The third goal was particularly pleasing, showing good awareness of not only the player on the ball, but those off it as well. Well done everybody!
Photos (thanks Steen)
Squad
Isaac Hylton, Jack Williams, Harry Sayer, Morgan Green, Kalhan Shah, Liam Ruiz, Owen Lowe, Jack Stevens, Adam Fearnside