U15's v Ransomes

Posted at 14/10/12 - 08:37 PM

Ransomes 2

Whitton United 4

Whitton produced a fantastic second-half comeback to beat a decent Ransomes side away from home, a performance that may prove vital at the end of the season. After going behind twice, late goals from Ryan Sharman and Harry Munroe finally killed the game off. In a tense match, tempers flared and the referee took centre stage for the wrong reasons. Ransomes will feel they deserved more from the 80 minutes, United happy with their resilience.

After a decent start for the visitors in which Sharman should have scored when put through on goal by Josh Turner, Ransomes took the lead in style on 15 minutes. Whitton didn’t fully clear their lines following a Ransomes attack and Peter Green was able to cut inside from the left and curl a shot over a motionless Tommy Gibson.

However, Ransomes enjoyed their lead for four minutes before United responded. Josh Turner collected a loose Ransomes ball deep inside their half, looked up and helped it on to Sharman who let it come across his body and drill it into the bottom left hand corner past Jack Burrows.

Tackles flew in from all directions in the middle of the park, Whitton midfielder John Goodchild on the end of a flying arm for which the game was stopped. On the stroke of half time Green struck another blow to Whitton’s chances with a near-identical goal, slightly more central but with the same end result. 2-1 to the hosts.

For the second time Whitton responded quickly, and 7 minutes into the second half they were back on level terms when Elliot Curtis’s threaded pass allowed Turner the simplest of opportunities to knock the ball past Burrows, which he took. Minutes later Whitton nearly shot themselves in the foot, Sam Harris’s headed backpass evading Gibson who had to clear it off the line. Green fluffed his lines when presented with a hat-trick, dragging his shot wide when through on goal.

Two Whitton chances came and went in quick succession, the second a great chance for Munroe to score only to shoot straight at Burrows. Just when it looked like the teams were going to share the points, Whitton turned on the style. Five minutes before the end, Scott Mackay flicked the ball up and smashed a volley from the edge of the box onto the underside of the crossbar. The ball bounced out to Sharman, who reacted quickest to tuck home the loose ball. And with a minute to go, defender Leo Ciufo cut off Ransomes as they searched for an equaliser, played the ball to Sharman who unselfishly squared the ball into Munroe’s feet. He didn’t miss.