YOUTH FOOTBALL: Horncastle U12 leapfrog opponents after excellent performance

Under-12

Birchwood 1

Horncastle leapfrogged their Lincoln rivals to move to eighth in the league after an almost faultless away performance at Birchwood.

The early exchanges were fairly even but the home side took the lead after a mix up in the Town defence.

However, being a goal down seemed to spark Horncastle into life and the Wongers equalised almost immediately after Kyle’s Tempest’s pace took him clean through to slot home.

As the half went on, Horncastle began to dominate the middle of the park and it became clear that well executed through-balls were likely to cause problems for Birchwood’s defence, given the pace and strength of Town’s attacking players. It was not long before Town took the lead with Connah Toulson breaking through to calmly slot home in a similar fashion to the equaliser.

The lead was soon extended further after a cracking header from an Ellis Roberts corner saw Horncastle go into the break quite comfortably at 3-1.

The third goal seemed to demoralise the home side and Horncastle continued to dominate in the second period. Peter Smith made one superb save midway through the half to deny Birchwood but other than a couple of goal mouth scrambles, the Town defence remained resolute.

The lead was extended further when the back line was breached again and James Smith used his strength and then composure to blast home the fourth. The fifth goal was scored by Louis Jones on the breakaway, following an excellent pass by James McKeag.

There was to be one more score with Toulson slamming home his second of the day in what proved to be a man of the match performance.

It was an excellent result and performance by Horncastle who fully deserved the win, with five different players on the scoresheet.