LETCHWORTH YELLOWS (U12) WIN ON PENALTIES

Youth Football

LETCHWORTH YELLOWS (U12) WIN ON PENALTIES

The Yellow Scribe 16/12/2007, 10:14 PM
Herts FA County Cup Round Three
Hemel Aces 5 v Letchworth Yellows 5 (AET)
YELLOWS WIN ON PENALTIES!

Three superb saves by Sam Luck helped The Yellows to victory in this thrilling county-cup tie on penalties.

As the game ended 5-5 after extra time, Luck stepped up and showed us what a fine shot stopper he is. It’s totally to his credit that Hemel failed with every penalty, while The Yellows made sure of the result by dispatching their shots with confident aplomb.

On the smallest pitch they’ve played on all season, The Yellows struggled to impose themselves on a team that they should have beaten in normal time. But great credit is due to our hosts, Hemel Aces, who twice fought back from two goal deficits to take this game all the way.

For a game that ended with such drama, the first twenty minutes had so little quality to it that a goal, any kind of goal, would have been a welcome distraction. A minute or so later, we got one, and what a goal it was. A lovely lay off from Alex Garbas found Adam Morris about twenty five yards out. A couple of seconds later, it passed by the Hemel goalkeeper faster than Santa on his sleigh to make it 1-0 to the Yellows. And before half time, a great run by Garbas gave him a scoring opportunity which he confidently despatched to make it 2-0 to the Yellows.

As the second half started, it was clear that The Yellows had switched off, and within a few minutes this lack of concentration saw Hemel get two quick goals in succession. In an immediate response, coach Terry Morris pushed Caspar Courlander up front alongside Jordan Leech-Levy, and within minutes Courlander ended a jinking run with a fine left footed strike and The Yellows were back in front. Clearly thinking he’d scored the winner, he entertained us with one of the season’s strangest celebrations. It was half James Brown, half MC Hammer. How I wish, I’d had a video camera to hand.

Five minutes later, the game was surely wrapped up by a fabulous free kick from Kyle Males to make it 4-2. But back came Hemel and in as many minutes they scored twice and extra time was upon us.

In the first half of extra time things went from bad to worse when Hemel took the lead for the first time in the match. As Terry Morris tried to cajole the team at half time, it looked very much like a lost cause as The Yellows looked like a team who’d already lost.

But you write this team off at your peril, and somehow they managed one more huge effort in the last period of extra time. All the team deserve a mention for their desire as time ebbed away, but it was Jordan who brought his team level with a well-deserved goal to take the game to penalties.

So a cup-tie of epic proportions ended with The Yellows progressing to the next round at the expense of our hosts who never gave up the fight. But as we move into the Xmas and New Years break, I hope never to witness a linesman embark upon the type of verbal threats made against Terry Morris during this match. If a linesman can’t handle his decisions being questioned, as is bound to happen, then he shouldn’t be given the flag. There may come a time when the only option is for coaches and supporters to be mute at youth football, which would be a shame, but is surely preferable to the kind of language that came out of the linesman’s mouth today.

So congratulations to The Yellows. You never gave up and you got your reward in the end. And well played Hemel Aces, you did not deserve to lose in such a cruel fashion. You played with great desire and skill and you earned the respect of players and parents alike.

Man of the Match: Penalty Hero Sam, who else!!!!