by Jeff King (With A Nod To Anth Johnson!)
Durham County FA U-18s Saturday League - Saturday 25th January 2025
Chester-le-Street United U-18s 2 v 1 Morpeth Town U-18s
A second win in a row for the U-18 lads on Saturday in what was a very good performance at home against a strong Morpeth Town side.
CLS Utd started off on the front foot with confidence forcing Morpeth backwards and could have took the lead in the first five minutes after two good corners had the opposing defenders scrambling to clear their six yard box.
Against the run of play the away side had the chance to go ahead but a great penalty save from Alex Lambert kept the game level.
Ten minutes in and the it was Shay Pye who put us ahead with a calm finish after Max Hepworth's ball in behind saw it glance off the defender and into Pye's path for him to calmly poke the ball over the advancing keepers head.
We could have gone further ahead two minutes later but Frankie Young's left foot strike destined for the top corner from the edge of the box forced a great save from the keeper after good work from Linsley to win us back possession.
An excellent block in our box from Ngoyi Wansay saved a probable goal resulting in us advancing up the pitch which lead to our second goal.
Sam Beattie's cross was headed into the path of Ethan Bell who tucked the ball away from ten yards to take us further ahead.
Morpeth put us under a bit of pressure leading into the half time break but a couple of outstanding saves from Lambert and some solid defensive work from White, Moss and Price allowed us to keep the lead at the halfway point.
The first twenty minutes of the second half started a bit scrappy from both sides without either creating many chances.
Morpeth got a lifeline with 25 minutes remaining taking advantage of a second penalty to score and set up an exciting finish.
Peacock came off the bench and added some energy for us in midfield last 30 minutes but although the opposition huffed and puffed it was United that looked more likely to score on the counter as they managed the game out really well playing in the right areas in behind.
TEAM : 1)Lambert 2)Price 3)Ngoyi Wansay 4)Moss 5)White 6)Young 7)Pye 8)Linsley 9)Beattie 10)Bell 11)Hepworth
SUBS : 12)Connelly 14)Peacock 15)Reid
SCORERS : Pye, Bell
MAN of the MATCH : Alex Lambert - top performance in goal from Lambert whose handling was comfortable throughout. Made a good penalty save followed up by a string of outstanding stops.
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