U9 REDS

AFC Sudbury U9s Reds 3 Long Melford U9s Reds 5 (Sunday 11 April 2010)

This was a thrilling match which could have gone either way. Melford were at a disadvantage for the entire game, being able to field just six players for the seven-a-side game, against Sudbury’s full compliment of players plus substitutes. The first half was a very closely fought affair and it was Sudbury who eventually broke the deadlock a little over half way through the first half with a goal from open play. Sudbury maintained their advantage until the final minute of the first half when Edward Murray weaved his way through the AFC defence and crossed to Sam Knight unmarked on the right who made no mistake to level the game at the interval.

Melford set a blistering pace in the first two minutes of the second half, Edward Murray again involved this time down the left flank with a run and cross which found Freddie Chandler lurking at the near post to assist the ball into the net to notch up his first goal for Melford. Very soon after the restart, Melford won a corner. The ball was passed to Dean Ablitt on the edge of the Sudbury penalty area who collected and very deliberately went round the defending player in front of him and shot high into the far corner to put the visitors 3-1 in front. With the six Melford players fatigued from their efforts Sudbury got back into the game and scored twice to level the match with just over ten minutes remaining in the game. With the game evenly poised and either side capable of going on to win it was Melford who got their second wind and took the game to Sudbury with Edward Murray hitting the post before setting up Sam Knight to score his second of the game with 5 minutes remaining. Dean Ablitt came very close when his shot hit the underside of the crossbar and bounced down but was adjudged not to have crossed the goal line. Sam Knight scored the final goal of his hat-trick in injury time to pull off a fantastic win for Melford.