YOUTH FOOTBALL: Horncastle Town U12 hold Bombers to a draw

Horncastle Town 2

Welton Bombers 2

Horncastle Town secured an excellent point against one of the league’s high flyers Welton Bombers, in a game where they nearly took the spoils late on when an appeal for handball in the box was denied.

The match, scheduled to be away, was played on a sunny early spring morning at The Wong due to the Welton pitch being waterlogged. Straight from the kick off Town went toe to toe with the visitors with both sides creating chances.

As the half went on, Welton started to take control and it wasn’t a big surprise when they scored with a deflected shot off defender Daniel Cobban, which gave Peter Smith in the Horncastle goal no chance.

Whatever Bruce Baxter and his management team said to the lads at half time worked a treat as the red and whites came out of the blocks with a steely determination to get back into the match.

Three minutes into the half, Town were ahead after two quickfire goals rocked the visitors. The equaliser was scored by Joshua Baxter, his first of the campaign, after a through ball by Louis Jones, with Baxter putting himself in a great position to slot the ball home.

Almost straight from the kick off, Connah Toulson stole the ball from a Welton player and passed to the aforementioned Jones who hit a pile driver into the roof of the net, to the delight of the home crowd.

The goals took the competitive nature of the match up another notch, with both sides getting stuck in with some strong but fair tackles.

As the half ticked on, it felt as if Town had done enough to take the points but credit must go to Welton’s number nine who scored an excellent solo effort to equalise with less than 10 minutes to go.

From this point, the intensity of the match seemed to wane slightly with both teams perhaps happy to settle for a point.

However, the talking point of the match came in the last minute when a Welton defender seemed to handle in the area. The referee decided there was no intent, much to the frustration of the home side. The whistle did blow almost immediately afterwards for full time.

This was an excellent all round performance by The Wongers. The man of the match award was shared between three players – Ellis Roberts and Louis Jones for a silk and steel performance in the middle of the park, and Joshua Baxter whose equaliser changed the game.