Six goals shared in friendly

Chandlers Ford Youth 3-3 Crusaders

Friendly – 29th March 2008

This friendly game gave Richard the chance to look at a couple of players who are not signed on but have been coming to training regularly, with the possibility of signing on for next season. Namely Kelvin Bagot, Tom Ashton and Dave Kilcoyne who all put in strong performances.

Chandlers Ford were by far the better side throughout the first half and could well have been three or four up inside the opening ten minutes.

Tom Ashton was in particularly fine form with one spectacular dribble weaving past and holding off the challenges of no less than five players inside the penalty area to make space for the shot but fired horribly wide with his weaker left foot having done all the hard work.

Ashton marked his debut in the blue of CFY with an excellent goal from the left-hand side that floated into the top corner leaving the goalkeeper rooted to the spot.

Kelvin Bagot, also making his first appearance, made some splendid saves at the opposite end to keep out two or three shots from point blank range with stunning reaction saves to keep his side in front.

Ford came close with Michael Wall firing narrowly wide on a couple of occasions as he combined with the excellent Alex Evens, whose hold up play for a boy of his size was remarkable.

CFY eventually doubled their lead through Evens whose dipping shot from all of 30 yards flew into the back of the net, a great strike.

The visitors, who have a winning mentality about them having won most of their games in the Tyro on a Sunday this season, managed to get one back as a slight lack of communication between goalkeeper and centre half saw Jake Beattie head an own goal. It was a great finish though, just at the wrong end!

HALF TIME: CFY 2-1 Crusaders

Crusaders put up a good fight in the second half and the game was becoming increasingly evenly matched.

Sure enough Ford conceded an equaliser as the pace of the visitors centre forward took him beyond the defence to squeeze a weak shot through the legs of Bagot.

Jake made amends for his earlier mistake towards the end claiming the final touch off a splendid Michael Sawbridge corner kick. This coming not long after Michael struck the woodwork directly from a previous corner, which was extremely unlucky.

In the closing stages of the game, Crusaders broke away to score a late goal to level the scores. CFY will be disappointed not to taken more of their chances.

FULL TIME: CFY 3-3 Crusaders