Bristol Central 1 Yate Town Blue 5 - Bristol Combination League Division 3
Yate Town Blues, one of three newly formed Under-18 teams, opened their season on Sunday 15th September in the Bristol Combination League against Bristol Central in Division 3.
Early difficulties for the young team saw 16-year-old goalkeeper Kalel Caswell needing to be replaced in the starting eleven. Caswell was struggling with a shoulder injury and it was decided it was best for him not to take the risk and play, so Matt Crossley was pressed into action, having initially been named on the bench.
The opening 20 minutes were a very even affair, with both sides competing in a fairly physical but fair encounter. Bristol Central hit the bar in the 12th minute, after Crossley had pushed a free-kick upwards, and shortly afterwards Yate came close to opening the score via Callum Rogers and Harvey Cotter.
The opening goal did arrive for Yate in the 20th minute. Callum Rogers came in from the right of midfield, opening his body nicely to shoot from around 20 yards. His strike came off the bar but striker Jayden Brown was on hand to fire home the rebound.
On the half-hour mark, Yate used the rolling subs allowed in the competition, bringing Cyprian Klawitter on to replace Luis Matthews who had taken a knock to the knee. Within seconds, Yate had doubled their lead. An in-swinging corner towards the back post had been headed back into danger by the Bristol Central defence, and Callum Rogers was the grateful recipient as he headed calmly into the net.
Unfortunately, the 2-0 lead lasted no more than a minute, with Bristol Central's quick centre forward racing onto a pass from midfield and made no mistake with the finish; Yate’s defence looked for the offside flag which never came. Cyprian Klawitter, who had only been on the pitch for 14 minutes, pulled up with his own knee injury and had to be replaced by Nasro Baghori, but the young Bluebells restored the two-goal lead before half-time, with a second for Rogers. This time his shot from distance didn't hit the bar, and curled nicely into the top corner.
The game was effectively ended as a contest early into the second-half, Rogers adding two more to his personal total, with the assists for both goals coming from left-back Logan Briggs. With the score at 5-1, further subs could be made, allowing Matthews to get back involved and Tristan Base coming into midfield, the latter almost scoring with his first touch.
The comfortable scoreline, that could have been more if not for a missed penalty, also allowed Yate to express full control of the game, playing some very good football in the progress.
Yate Town Blue: Matt Crossley; Sam North, Finlay Jouxson, Dan Leary, Logan Briggs; Ollie Barton, Callum Rogers; Pete Roberts, Harvey Cotter, Luis Matthews; Jayden Brown. subs: Leyton Bath, Tristan Base, Nasro Baghori, Cyprian Klawitter.
Player of the Match: Callum Rogers.
