Hampton Reds U15 2 vs 1 Bartley Reds U15 South

Today we welcomed Bartley Reds to Hampton, still searching for our first win of the season, facing another promoted side enjoying life in Division 4.

Hampton started this game very brightly, on the front foot from the kick off and applying lots of early pressure. When you’re struggling for goals and wins, it can often seem like everything is going against you and we could have been forgiven for feeling that way when Fyn hit the bar from a corner and then Ollie connected well with a header from another corner which the keeper did well to save. With Omar, Fin and Rushy all trying to break forward, it felt like the ball wasn’t quite dropping for us again, so we would really have to persist in this game to overcome that confidence barrier. With their first attack, Bartley got a corner and were very excited by this… we soon found out why when they scored. Apparently they had scored something like 9 goals in 3 games from corners…great! 0-1.

If you’re going to fall behind against the run of play, what better way to regain the momentum than a rapid response… Ollie flicked the ball through to Omar who got in front of the defender and flicked the ball past the keeper into the right corner, 1-1. Another corner for us and this time Kielan met it well with a header only for their keeper to pull off another strong save… 3 times we’ve connected from corners today and not scored, unbelievable! We certainly should be more of a threat on corners though and I’ll be making this known at training. Ollie was moved up the pitch and almost instantly grabbed a goal but was blocked out by the defenders and keeper. The half then turned a little scrappy and no further chances to note, HT 1-1.

Hampton could feel very unfortunate to not be winning this game considering the chances we had, but our second half performances so far this season have been where the games have been lost… today we needed to put this right.

The first portion of the second half was pretty scrappy, a little bit stop-start, until Ollie popped the ball through for Rayyan to chase and our captain duly obliged to knock it past the keeper into the net, 2-1.

The only way Bartley were getting back into this game was through a set piece and somehow they kept getting them, but great battling from the lads kept them out. We had 2 major chances to put the game to bed with both Harry P and Fin receiving the ball with time and space in the box but a little bit of pressure meant we couldn’t capitalise. No problem this time though as we saw out the game 2-1 winners and deservedly stopped the rot and got 3 points on the board.

Again the lads at the back had a tremendous afternoon, only undone by 1 corner and having that to build on can only help the attacking side of our game. Today we looked a real threat with Omar running his socks off and Ollie playing terrific in a number of positions… but MOTM went to Matthew Bristol for a solid performance at right back and setting his bar for the season and future with Hampton, well done Matt!

Onwards and upwards for the Reds, hopefully that cloud has lifted and we can kick on now, knowing the level that we need to play at every week.

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