Bill Martin’s Match of the Week Under-14 Northbank A 6 Silloth 0

Last updated at 12:33, Wednesday, 16 December 2009

Northbank A recorded a comfortable six-goal victory at home to Silloth to retain their 100 per cent record in the Bosch Power Tools League.

Knees up: Silloth Under-14’s Josh Green, left, challenges Northbank’s Jack Sessford for the ball during the league clash on Saturday

They got off to a flying start and were two goals ahead after only five minutes.

Nortbank got off to a great start when they broke quickly out of defence to score with the game a mere two minutes old.

The goal came after a promising Silloth move, featuring Connor Crellin, Macauley Carr and Sam Mulla, led to a corner after a telling tackle from Simon Cavanagh.

The corner, which was taken by Mulla, was cleared by Alex Rudd whose powerful header reached lone striker Daniel Ross who was facing his own goal.

In the meantime, Rudd had raced out of defence to support Ross and when the striker cleverly turned the ball into his path Rudd just kept running until he found himself with only Cameron Pape - in the Silloth goal - to beat and the Northbank player made no mistake with a well struck shot into the net.

The Nortbank players were finding their men with crisp, accurate passes and a second goal followed within minutes when good link up play between Cavanagh and Jack Sessford enabled James Allison to drill home his shot from the edge of the penalty area for the first goal of his hat-trick.

There was no let up from the Northbank players and the Silloth defence was given a torrid time as Northbank mounted attacks from all parts of the field.

Pape made a number of saves and he was gallantly helped out by Jack Wallace, Crellin, Gareth Davenport and Josh Garner but they still fell further behind when the ever busy Ryan Reilly ran through to score his team’s third goal.

The move again started from defence when Rudd headed clear from a Mulla corner.

As with the first goal Rudd’s header found Ross who again passed to Rudd who was already at full speed. Rudd then found Reilly and the forward immediately cut in from the left to score from close range.

Northbank continued to dominate and there was some splendid inter-passing between Jack Harrison, Reilly and Allison which finished with Harrison running through only to shoot wide from a favourable position.

Northbank added a fourth goal following some great build up play, involving Cavanagh, Reilly and Harrison, which resulted in Reilly making ground on the right before crossing low to Ross whose first time shot was saved by Pape diving to his right.

Unfortunately, for the Silloth keeper he could only push the ball out and the first player to react was Allison who made no mistake from four yards out.

Mulla made a rare sortie into the Northbank half but he was unable to get round Cavanagh who turned the ball into touch.

Silloth’s respite was brief as Northbank attacked through the menacing Reilly but Pape made a good save.

Reilly continued to be a threat and he looked odds on to score, when he rounded Pape, but he was eventually sqeezed out by the combined defensive efforts of Wallace and Garner who kept the ball out of the net at the expense of a corner.

Silloth manager, Derek Wallace, re-organised his team for the second half and they gained an early free-kick which Ryan Morris took but it was cleared by Matthew Rosbotham.

Mulla moved back to centre half and he did well to break up a move between Ross and Luke Jackman at the expense of a corner.

Jackman continued by delivering the corner kick which was only cleared as far as Dean Armstrong who fired his shot over the bar from the edge of the area.

Harrison and Jackman then carved open the Silloth defence to lay on a shooting chance for Ross but the striker was out of luck when the ball rebounded from the under-side of the bar before being scrambled clear by the visiting defence.

The Northbank pressure was relentless and they scored their fifth goal, in the forty ninth minute, when Allison converted a Harrison cross to collect his hat-trick.

A sixth goal soon followed after Ross found Reilly but Stuart Johnson got in a good tackle and the ball went behind for a corner which was taken by Jackman. The Silloth defence failed to get the ball clear and it was seized on by Reilly whose vicious shot entered the net off the under- side of the crossbar.

The Silloth players tried to break through the Northbank defence, on a number of occasions, but they were unable to make much headway due to the resolute defending of Rudd and Connor Moore.

Northbank: David Airey, Sammy Cavanagh, Luke Jackman, Connor Moore, Matthew Rosbotham, James Allison, Alex Rudd, Jack Harrison, Jack Sessford, Ryan Reilly and Daniel Ross. Subs: Dean Armstrong, Mark Hedley, John Shepherd, Ashley Willis and Matthew O’Neill

Silloth: Cameron Pape, Jack Wallace, Josh Garner, Gareth Davenport, Connor Crellin, Ryan Morris, Stuart Johnson, Macauley Carr, Sam Mulla, Jack Mullins and Ryan Mahoney. Subs: Ross Jefferson, Mitchell Robinson and Billy Charters

Referee: Adam Cox

Man of the Match: Alex Rudd, mid-field, Northbank A: Alex ran through the Silloth defence to open the scoring and much of Northbank’s play revolved around him. He played as a central defender in the second half and Silloth just couldn’t find a way round him.

First published at 11:22, Wednesday, 16 December 2009
Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk