Yate Town U18 Blue 5 Almondsbury United 3
Brown (12), Everson (24), Roberts (31), Topley (50, 65)
Bristol U18 Football Combination League Division 3
Sunday 27th April 2025
Yate Town U18 Blue finished the season in style with a 5-3 win over Almondsbury United on Sunday afternoon.
The young Bluebells took hold of the tie from early on, and could have taken the lead when Pete Roberts danced past a few challenges but couldn’t find the finish. But just seven minutes later, the hosts were ahead. The impressive Archie Stanton put over a perfect cross from the right and Jayden Brown, playing his final match at this age-level, was on hand to finish smartly at the back post for his seventh goal of an excellent season.
Freddie Everson and Kris Olah both went close from distance before in the 24th minute, the former doubled his side’s advantage. Left-back Logan Briggs’ long throw-in found Freddie Everson, and the forward composed himself before firing into the bottom corner for his eighth goal of the season.
But Almondsbury United were not allowing Yate to have it all their own way, and halved the deficit with a scrambled goal from a corner with 27 minutes played.
Pete Roberts has had an outstanding season, and it was the winger who restored his side’s two goal advantage in the 31st minute. Picking the ball up halfway inside the opposition half on the right, he weaved his way past six challenges before rolling the ball home confidently with his left-foot; a superb individual effort to give him his 11th goal of the season.
Roberts should have grabbed a second just two minutes later. Everson’s ball put Man of the Match Brown in on the left, and his cross shot crashed back off the post, but Roberts couldn’t quite control the rebound. Everson and Roberts also went close in the closing stages of the first-half, but the young Bluebells had to settle for a 3-1 lead after a half that they had mostly dominated.
U16 striker Declan Topley was introduced at half-time, and he made an immediate impact. With five minutes of the half played, fellow half-time sub Nasro Baghori found him in the box and he produced a smart finish for his first goal for the club. And ten minutes later it was 5-1, with Topley again on target, rounding the goalkeeper smartly and rolling home.
Yate continued to dominate, and Topley, Luis Matthews and Brown all could and maybe should have extended their advantage, but none could capitalise. A number of rolling subs were made by the Bluebells coaching team, and Almondsbury capitalised with two late goals to make it interesting; and indeed, Yate were indebted to goalkeeper Kalel Caswell, who pulled off a brilliant double-save in the last minute to make sure there was no late drama.
It has overall been a good first season for U18 Blue, who will probably finish in 2nd or 3rd place, and the feeling is there is a lot to build on for next season.
Starting XI: Kalel Caswell; Archie Stanton, Sam North, Dan Leary, Logan Briggs; Kris Olah, Ollie Barton; Pete Roberts, Harvey Cotter, Jayden Brown; Freddie Everson.
Substitutes: Luis Matthews, Archie Morrison, Nasro Baghori.
Man of the Match: Jayden Brown.