Under 18s beaten after comeback
United’s youth team kicked off their Merit League 2 fixtures with an exciting encounter at Wimbledon where they came back from 2-0 down to level the scores before a late goal for the home team gave the Wombles a 3-2 win.In a new format for the Under 18s, United are now in a new division for the second half of the season and after going 2-0 down at the break stormed back to level things through George Jeacock and Jordan Graham. However, as coach Leon Blackmore-Such told us, they were then punished for chasing the game in the closing stages:
“We started really poorly, mentally we weren’t right and a couple of defensive errors saw us 2-0 down at the break. We had a couple of chances in that half but couldn’t argue with the scoreline.
“We switched things around, moved two midfielders further forward with one holding, and we were much better. We got a goal back through Jordan Graham with a near post header and then equalised with a really good goal. Seth Humphries ended a decent move with a ball for George Jeacock who touched it round the last defender and finished for a clever goal, probably one of the best we’ve scored this season.
“We were controlling the game then and towards the end we won a free kick 30 yards out from their goal. We’d want that played to a midfielder usually to get us playing again but instead we launched it into the area, they won the header and broke away to score on the counter in the 86th minute.
“Obviously disappointing to lose the game having come back strongly; the second half was as well as we’ve played this season. But there were some good performances and we just have to make sure we start games the right way.”
United
Stephens, C Hawtin, Ricketts, McCormack, F Grant, Humphries, Diaz-Benitez (Cook), Hastings (Aikins-Hawkson), Conte (Balogun) Jeacock, Graham