Broadhall Youth 3 BSCFC Blues 2 For the second successive week Blues played most of the football, created a lot of the chances, but went home empty handed. The Blues began determined to wipe away the unpleasant memories of last week s unfortunate defe

Broadhall Youth 3 BSCFC Blues 2

For the second successive week Blues played most of the football, created a lot of the chances, but went home empty handed.

The Blues began determined to wipe away the unpleasant memories of last week's unfortunate defeat to Royston. In driving rain and playing against the wind, Blues started a little slowly and Broadhall were the stronger team in the first 10 minutes.

Although Blues were competing valiantly there was a slight tendency to react to situations rather than anticipate them and after about 10 minutes Broadhall took advantage of a gap on the left of Blues' defence to sweep home a cross from the right from close range.

Broadhall began to press forward and were unlucky not to double their lead when confusion in the Blues defence saw the ball desperately scrambled off the line by Clarry Williams.

However, this near miss seemed to spark Blues into life and they started to display the skilful patient football that has helped them near the top of the League.

Admittedly the first clear chance fell to Jordan Sanderson from a long punt from Tommy Baiss, but the ball was slightly overrun allowing the goalkeeper to make a brave save at Jordan's feet.

But rather than get them down this seemed to galvanise the Blues into action and the midfield of Jordan Powles, Sam Gale, Harry Synowski and the simply excellent Matt Wheeler started to take control of the game.

As well as playing some very controlled passing football, Blues were now starting to fight much harder for the first and second ball, and this gave them the time to start passing the ball and creating chances.

From one such move Matt Wheeler broke down the right laying the ball in for Jordan Sanderson to lay the ball back for Greg Harrison who blazed just over the bar.

Shortly after that Harry Synowski came even closer with a belter from 20 yards that smacked against the crossbar. And finally after 20 minutes Matt Wheeler broke loose on right hand side, dribbled down to the byline and crossed back for Greg Harrison to make amends with a delicious lob into the top corner.

Very shortly after it was Wheeler once again who broke free on the right and crossed dangerously, the 'keeper was unable to claim the ball and Sanderson lashed into an empty net to make it Broadhall 1 Blues 2.

The half time whistle came with Blues a goal to the good and they turned round full of determination to put the game beyond Broadhall's reach. Time and again we put pressure on the Broadhall defence, but a combination or poor finishing and the excellent Broadhall centre-half stopped Blues from confirming their superiority with further goals.

Wheeler was particularly unlucky with an absolute piledriver that smacked against the bar from the edge of the D.

But in spite of dominating the game, Blues were unable to put Broadhall to the sword and with 15 minutes left, poor marking and a lack of pressure on the attacking side left Broadhall to put away an excellent finish to make it all square.

Scott Almond was forced off with a bad hamstring and maybe this led to a lack of concentration from a Broadhall corner shortly afterwards. Their attacking player was given an eternity to cross the ball with no Blues player putting him under any pressure and it came as no surprise that, after the ball ran loose, Broadhall were able to score the third from close range.

They almost went 4-2 up when a cracking shot from the Broadhall Number 10 cannoned off the bar but Blues continued to search for an equaliser.

Powles and Wheeler on the left were doing their best to bring Blues back into the game and Jordan Sanderson burst through with five minutes left to slide it wide of the 'keeper but also just wide of the left hand post.

Another near miss from Sanderson from a well worked throw proved to be the last chance for Blues to draw level, and once again we were left scratching our heads at how we could play so well and yet end up on the losing side.

Broadhall to their credit never stopped running and harrying and maybe at times we lost a little concentration.

But the order of the day seems to be that we get punished when the opposition create chances so we really do need to score the goals our play merits.

It is hard to criticise the Blues for their football, we just need to concentrate far more from set pieces and to take far more of the chances we make.

Broadhall had six chances and scored three goals, we created eight or nine and only scored two. Ultimately that was the difference between two very closely matched teams in a game that was played in excellent spirit.