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Young City side full of promise (March 04, 2008) City Reserves 1 Ash 3
The Development Squad's players were up against the league leaders who are very organised and have strength in depth across the team. The goalkeeper, Brad Ashmore, was at Canterbury City for a short while before leaving to go to Sittingbourne in the summer.
City, who had a team of mostly young players, started well and took the game to Ash. They opened the scoring with a through ball from Karl Williams to Jason Anthony who did well to place his low drive under the body of Ashmore. A well-placed pass from Williams through a crowded defence, set Anthony away to score and to take the lead.
Ash battled their way through the first half and the referee took two names partly because they were finding the pace of the game difficult. Another referee on another day, one, maybe two would have walked for dissent. City stayed calm and did not let themselves be dragged into any arguments.
City’s brave defending came to an end on 40 minutes when they pushed forward to employ the offside trap. The referee and linesman clearly missed the offside and allowed the Ash striker to go on and level the scores before the break. Changes at half-time saw a new player for the Development Squad play left back. Dean Brockman, who has recently signed for the Under-18s, settled in well and gave a good account of himself while at right back Sam Gurr played a solid half and put in a good performance without any repercussions of his injury.
City, continued to battle through the second half but were dealt two cruel blows when Ash took advantage of two pieces of bad defending. City had worked hard all day at trying to keep Ash at bay, but against a team who are top of the table and in good form, the work was bound to fail sooner or later.
The positives from this game were the way the squad never gave up and tried their best to come back into the game. Williams and Anthony went close a couple of times, hitting the post and the crossbar but John Lewis could have got one back but his shot was cleared off the line.
Ashmore was at his best and it would of taken something spectacular to beat him on this form. Overall, City were the better team on the day, not only for the dominant football they played but the way they grew in maturity not to be dragged into pointless dissent with officials and opponents.
City: Gower, Holbrook (45), Woollcott, S Johnson, Gilbert (c), K. Williams, Winder(45), P Johnson, T Clark, Anthony, Lewis. Subs: Gurr (45), Brockman (45). Click here to return to the News page
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