Marine 0, Indanet Youth 3

JACK put in one of his best performances during a muddy top-of-the-table clash.

Against arguably the best side in their league, the young Mariners expected a tough match.

Yet another sluggish start saw them go a goal behind when a shot deflected off our Jack's leg as he lunged.

I was pleased to see Jack battle back though rather than sulk. He dealt with everything well and covered plenty of ground, keeping his promise to 'get stuck in.'

It was especially pleasing to see him take no notice of one opponent who followed John Terry's poor example by constantly bleating to the referee.

The team performance was generally lethargic and Marine desperately needed someone to carry the ball forward from midfield.

The forwards saw little of the ball and when they did get chances they simply didn't get the breaks.

Indanet deserved their victory, although some well polished pushing at throw-ins took the shine off an otherwise impressive performance by a talented group of youngsters.

Here's the official match report...

Marine U7s 0, Indanet Youth U7s 3

THE young Mariners were not at their best against their nearest rivals as they attempted to leapfrog Indanet into second place in the table.

Defeat was no more than they deserved but the game was closer than the score line might suggest.

In dismal conditions Marine again started slowly and were soon under pressure from a hungrier Indanet team.

It looked like Marine would weather the storm but on too many occasions the Marine defence were out-numbered by the Indanet attack and it was only a matter of time before it resulted in a goal.

Despite some brave saves from keeper, Paul Williams, Indanet scored twice before the break to give them a deserved lead with Marine rarely threatening the Indanet defence.

With a couple of positional changes for Marine the second half was a different story with Marine coming back into the game stronger and more determined.

Some great work in Midfield by Bradley Roberts and Andrew Begbie ensured that Marine enjoyed a lot more possession and managed to put the Indanet defence under quite a bit of pressure without creating many clear cut chances.

Despite superior possession and territorial advantage for the Mariners, Indanet always looked dangerous on the counter attack and the Marine defence never looked at ease at any time.

With Marine pressing forward to get back into the game Indanet gave the score line a misleading look with a well-taken goal with the last kick of the game.

Despite the defeat and a below par performance from Marine there were some positives to take from the game with a few gutsy performances from Paul Williams, Andrew Begbie, Bradley Roberts and another solid display from MOM Liam Bromilow in defence.

Sometimes when you come up against a good team, effort is not enough and today was one of those games. Full credit to a well-drilled and skilful Indanet team.

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