Tuesday 31st August 2010 - New Bradwell St Peter 2 Tokyngton Manor 1
This was the first outing for the youth team. A number of new players have joined to strengthen the squad even further from last season and this year the team will be managed by Simon and Chris Folland. Chris has joined from Cranfield Youth and Brook End Colts who were by far the most successful youth team side at their age group, winning numerous league and cup titles and a number of their players have joined the squad which bodes well for the upcoming season.
The game didn't get off to the best of starts with Tokyngton being delayed and the game finally kicking off at just after 20.30, however both teams didn't let this stop them playing football and Tokyngton in particular who had only the briefest of warm-up quickly showed they were here to play football. The first real effort at goal came from St Peter's, a well worked passage of play saw debutant Jamie Cox solidly win the ball in the middle and release Pius Ofori, but his shot narrowly cleared the cross bar on 9 minutes. Tokyngton had pace a plenty out wide and this was where most of the threat came from, however Sam Jay in goal wasn't really called on to doing anything in particular and even though both sides worked hard, neither could break down their opponents defence. Tokyngton had the advantage in height and certainly from set pieces looked dangerous but a good save by Sam from a free kick and solid defending at corners kept them at bay, Derrick MacDonald on the wing for St Peter's was giving his markers a torrid time and he came closest to opening the scoring when some great interplay between Pius and Michael Kalugin up front made space for Derrick to run on to the ball, but his shot thumped against the post and away to safety on 28 minutes and in the end the half finished scoreless.
A quick turn around didn't leave much time for a team chat, but Tokyngton's management had clearly seen the threat from Michael and Pius and asked their players to work much harder to deny them space and for the first 10 minutes of the half they shaded it in terms of possession and attacking threat, but again solid defending by Matt Hayes and Ryan Coyle at centre backs in particular denied them. On 58 minutes a free kick was won by Pius and Ben Rymer stepped up and planted a fantastic effort up and over the wall in to the top left corner to make it 1 – 0 to St Peters. This goal deflated the opposition somewhat and St Peters now pressed hard for a second. Both Pius and Michael came close and with Derrick and Ben causing problems out wide a lot of the play was in Tokyngton's half, however their speed up front was always a threat and St Peter's had to work hard on their shape and covering to deny them. On 65 minutes Colm Rooney came on to replace Jamie with Ryan moving to centre midfield and Nathan Hawkins came on to replace Tom Thornton at right back with a final change a few minutes later seeing Max Folland come on to replace Jordan "Doogie" MacDonald. It took until the 77 minute for the second goal to come, a whipped in corner from Max was met by Michael who clipped the ball in past the near post defender to make it 2 – 0 to St Peter's and provide a bit of breathing space. Tokyngton made some changes of their own, putting their rapid right winger on up front and they pressed hard to get back in to the game, finally grabbing a goal with 5 minutes left on the clock. St Peter's continued to press themselves and the game really opened up, Tokyngton had a big shout for a penalty late on which they didn't get and on the balance of play, St Peter's ran out worthy 2 – 1 winners to get the season off to a great start.
Man of the match went to Mark Hunn for a great performance in the centre of midfield, with notable mentions also going to both Michael Kalugin and Derrick MacDonald.
Team:- S Jay, T Thornton (60 – N Hawkins), M Hayes, R Coyle, J McDougal (65 – M Folland), B Rymer, J Cox (55 – C Rooney), M Hunn, D MacDonald, P Ofori, M Kalugin
Yellow Cards - McDougal