Cringleford FC U10’s  v Watton FC U10’s  (League)

20/09/09   10.00 Kick off

                 Squad         Tom Lister
                                     Joe Dickinson (Captain)
                                     Reece Slater
                                     James Curtis
                                     Jacob Sharred
                                     Leo Taylor
                                     Bryn Mullen
                                     Ashley Smith
                                     Alex Hardy
                     
                      Final Score    1 - 1

                      Goal Scorer   Leo Taylor 1
    
                     M.O.M        Tom Lister        

Oozing confidence after a footballing masterclass at Thetford the previous week, and buoyed by the midweek signing of the mercurial Spaniard Huddlestone, Cringleford took to the field against a free-scoring Watton side which had not dropped a single league point since December 2007.
Both sides started brightly with Watton creating the early chances, until a moment of magic from Leo opened up the Watton defence – a defence notoriously as difficult to prise open as my Dad’s wallet - and he fired Cringleford into a 1-0 lead.
For the majority of the rest of the encounter, a game of cat and mouse was played out, with nothing to show for either side from some quality football.
Under the watchful eye of club legend Paul Curtis, son James performed heroically against Watton’s goal machine number 7, restricting him to a couple of shots from distance.  Alongside him, Reece marshalled the defence magnificently against the league’s most potent attacking line-up.
Alex and Brynn ran tirelessly up front, but were restricted to half chances by Watton’s experienced defence.
Ashley, Leo, and Joe controlled the midfield, but found space hard to come by.
Jacob was rested after dominating the midfield in Saturday’s encounter with Bowthorpe.
In the last quarter, Cringleford’s defence was finally breached by a shot from the edge of the area, and in the final few minutes Watton could have won it but for the calm presence of “safe-hands” Tom in goal.
These two sides will be there or thereabouts at the end of the season.
At the end of this day, however, there was only one winner, and that was football itself.

Report by Joe