Under 18 Pre-Season Match,
Short Lane
30th July 2008

Ashford started with five first year players and six second years. Although Kingstonian had most of the possession and retained the ball better the shape of the Ashford team meant that there was no real threat to their goal.  Luke Roberts was marshalling his defenders and Danny Byron showed that he has really taken on Mick Snowden’s instructions by being sharp in midfield and shutting the play down at the right times.

Ashford defended for about a twenty-minute period with the odd break away. Gradually however Kingstonian ran out of ideas and Ashford started to play some good football. The first sub for Ashford was after about 35 minutes, Jimmy Stanford on for Tom Snowden, who had played on Monday. Stanford went into the unusual position for him at centre midfield but as he has bags of talent he influenced the game almost immediately with his attacking threat

George Jennings scored Ashford’s first goal with a very sharp turn and some good movement of the ball he beat three defenders on the edge of the box and as the keeper came out he calmly put the ball in the far top corner. Both Jennings and his strike partner Lowe- Simms looked dangerous with their pace and skill. As with a lot of young forwards they will have to work on their general movement but both are real prospects for the future.

This goal gave Ashford even more confidence and in my opinion they dominated the rest of the game.  A number of substitutions were made at half time and throughout the game the only constant for Ashford was Luke Roberts who is a very capable centre back. I’m sure he will be off to University next year but would definitely be a potential first team player in the future.

Ashford’s second goal came from a left foot shot from Stanford from about 25 yards that took a slight deflection off George Baldock on its way into the corner of the net.

Ashford’s defending as a unit was good throughout the game and in fact the only real chances Kingstonian had were from corners. The first was comfortably cleared off the line by Jones and the second was cleared from in front of his keeper by Roberts.

All in all this was a very good performance from a team of boys most of whom hadn’t played together before. Mick Snowden was very pleased with their ability to understand the instructions they are receiving from himself and coach Ben Murray and look a solid group of players.

There are some potential real finds in Lowe-Simms, Wombwell and Loates and all the boys that have been involved in the two games so far have impressed.

Starting line up (in formation):

Dane Buss

Ryan Bona
Luke Roberts
Ryan Casteldine
Tom Butler

Tom Snowden
Danny Byron
Taylor Gough
Charlie Verdon

Dwayne Lowe-Simms
George Jennings

Subs:
Seb Jones
Lewis Wombwell
George Baldock
Jimmy Stanford
Billy Houlihan
Darrell Loates