by Jeff King
Durham FA Under-18 League - Saturday 24th August 2024
New Hartley Juniors 5 v 2 Chester-le-Street United PV U-18s
A historic day for Chester-le-Street United as they made their debut in the Durham FA Under-18's League. Under the astute leadership of Coaches Anthony Johnson and Micky Barron they travelled to famed youth side New Hartley Juniors.
The new look U-18 PV team is a mixture of Under-16 Park View Performance Centre and first year Under-17 Park View Academy and they knew that making their debut in this prestigious league was always going to be a baptism of fire.
They were up against historically the strongest and most established team at this age group and level. Despite the final score the youngsters gave a very encouraging and promising performance and were more than a match for today’s opponents.
The lads got off to a great start and took the lead after five minutes through Ethan Bell. Two minutes later New Hartley equalised then took the lead on 23 mins.
Bell was again on target with a great header to get United back in the game. Moments before half time thought they went behind in what was a pretty evenly contested 1st half.
Second half the home side got on top a little with some quality pieces of individual play in the final third that opened up the young PV side and went on to scramble a further two goals in and around the box which took the game away from United's youngsters.
The comments from the Coaching staff reflected the pride and sense of achievement this very young side engendered after their historic debut.
"The boys were brilliant today against a quality side that probably expect to be in the top three come the end of the season. Lots of learning and progression ahead but this young group proved they will be more than a match for teams as the season progresses."
Team : 1 Alex Lambert 2 Harry Garvey 3 Max Hepworth 4 Harrison Price 5 Alex White 6 Frankie Young 7 Shay Pye 8 Ethan Connelly 9 Ethan Bell 10 Kai Hardy
11 Carter Bell
Subs : 12 Jimmy McGuire 14 George Jackson 15 Brooklyn Moss 16 Alfie Whyte
Goal Scorer(s) : Ethan Bell 2
Man of the Match : Ethan Bell
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