by Jeff King (With thanks to Micky Barron/Anth Johnson)
Durham County FA Under-18s Saturday League - Saturday 21st September 2024
Chester-le-Street United 3 v 3 Heaton Stannington
The U-18’s welcomed Heaton Stannington to The Riverside on Saturday with both teams looking for their first win which both sides have been close to in all their games so far.
It was Chester who should have been two up early on as Shay Pye had an opportunity on 7 minutes after a mistake by their keeper who recovered well to grab the ball back from 3 yards out.
Pye went close again with a great ball across the face of the goal from Hepworth but the ball was agonisingly volleyed over the bar from 6 yards.
25 mins in and it was Stan who went ahead after being gifted from a back pass that wasn’t dealt with and the ball was slid into the open net.
Max Hepworth took up a great position at the back post from a corner before firing into the top right of the keeper from 10 yards to equalise with a great strike.
Half time 1-1
The CLS Utd lads started bright second half and again could have took the lead had it not been for a great save that thwarted Pye. George Jackson went close with the resulting corner but again just failed to hit the target.
The home side were playing some great stuff in particular the midfield four but our final ball in the last third could have been better as we struggled to penetrate at times.
A speculative cross from the right fell into the path of the opposing striker on the edge of the box who fired into the bottom corner to go ahead on 70 mins.
Five minutes later great pressing from Connelly forced the Stan defender into giving him the ball and a cleverly weighted ball in behind allowed Anderson to drive into the box and poke the ball beyond the keeper to level it up again.
Another corner we failed to deal with as the ball was parried into the path of the black and whites forward who stabbed it over the line on 85 minutes.
United showed great character to stay in the game and got their rewards in the final minute as Anderson’s shot from just inside the right hand corner of the box found Hepworth at the far post and he bundled the ball across the line to gain us a well deserved point.
Another game where United were so close and deserving of the 3 points but they continue to improve and work on areas as a young group where they can be better.
Lots of positives again especially when United kept the ball and used the space on the pitch by being patient in possession moving the ball out of congested areas.
Coach Micky Barron's post-game thoughts were.
"We played some excellent football at times but final pass lacked quality . Gave away poor goals with two goalkeeping errors . Defensively we are going to struggle against stronger better players . A lot of positives and Frankie Young was excellent."
Coach Anth Johnson added.
"Individual errors costly which is understandable being so young but the ones that learn from it will kick on. Others that don’t and continue to make the same mistakes will struggle."
TEAM : 1. Reid 2. Garvey 3. Hepworth 4. White 5. Price 6. Young 7. Barker 8. Connelly 9 Bell 10. Pye 11. Jackson
SUBS : 12. Whyte 14. Anderson 15. Lambert
SCORERS : Max Hepworth 2, Liam Anderson
MAN of the MATCH : Frankie Young. Top performance from this lad as he ran the game for Chester in the middle of the park with great quality and desire.
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