by Jeff King (With A Huge Nod To Colin Wotherspoon)
Wearside League Division One - Saturday 1st March 2025 Coxhoe Athletic 0 v 4 Chester-le-Street United Reserves
United's reserves moved up to sixth in the First Division table and within three points of 3rd place with an excellent dominating away performance at Coxhoe on Saturday.
After the disappointment of losing to a very late goal last weekend the young reserve team get back to winning ways with a solid away effort against Coxhoe Athletic.
United made 2 forced changes from that defeat against league leaders Willington with Alex Clark coming in for the suspended Dan Walton and Ben Gallagher in for Joe Sykes who was unwell.
United made a bright start to the game with the way they moved and handled the ball on a lively pitch. In the first half they did get sloppy with their decisions and passing in the final third although always looked the more likely to score.
They eventually took the lead when Gallagher was upheld inside the box and he picked himself up to fire home the resulting penalty to put United 1-0 in front.
Coxhoe had one or two opportunity’s from set plays just before the break that United eventually dealt with to help them go in at the break 1 - 0 in front.
The conversations at the break centred around having more patience and better quality when working their way into good positions in the final third and that it was important to keep their discipline in defence.
United's coaches also felt that they needed to get an early goal if possible and indeed with their first attack in the second half Harvey Lawrence should have doubled the lead.
A bursting run down the right hand side from Kymani Seevrin was followed by a brilliant teasing cross that Lawrence read well but somehow failed to make contact with yards from the goal when unmarked.
However, United did get the second soon after when Severin picked up the ball just outside the home side's box and coming across field and onto his weaker left foot he eventually smashed the ball home inside the near post to put us 2-0 up.
That gave United some breathing space in the game which allowed them to be more patient and with 15 minutes remaining they went further in front with a similar goal to the second.
Keane Mitchell who was moved into the centre midfield late in the game smashing the ball from a tight angle on his weaker left foot to give the keeper no chance.
It was the impressive Matty Henderson who put the game to bed with a late goal when he fired off a shot through the defenders block to wrong foot the keeper and secure the 3 points and United finished with a comprehensive 4-0 victory.
Colin Wotherspoon's Post Game Comments - I thought our 2 centre backs in Alex Clark and Riley Everett were excellent throughout the game in their defending and ability on the ball in our build up play.
Both our wide players today in Kymani Severin and Harvey Lawrence gave us great width and a real threat to their back line.
Matty Henderson was excellent in the middle of the pitch with his composure and passing range throughout the game plus he got himself on the scoresheet,
TEAM : 1. Harry Telfer 2. Keane Mitchell 3. Joe Walls 4. Matty Henderson 5. Alex Clark 6. Riley Everett 7. Kymani Severin 8. Ben Gallagher 9. Jude Anderson 10. Olly Dixon (c) 11. Harvey Lawrence
SUBS : 12. Finn Cook 14. Leo Fasuan 15. Jack Wilson
SCORERS : Gallagher (pen), Severin, Mitchell, Henderson
MAN of the MATCH : Alex Clark - He was aggressive in his defending when asked and was reliable with his passing when stepping into the game in our build up play.
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