Leaders too strong for Panthers

Melbourn U-10 Panthers 1 St Neots Yellows 2

PANTHERS found table-topping Yellows too strong on Sunday.

Melbourn harried and pressed St Neots until a strong shot from Mathew Goodfellow grazed the crossbar and nearly put them in the lead.

The game went from strength to strength with counter attack after counter attack from each side. Finally, Melbourn broke the deadlock with Stevie Beatie breaking through to have a clear run at goal and release a thunderous shot that defelected in off the back of a St Neots defender.

Shortly after St Neots equalised and they continued to pressure the Melbourn defence and it was only some great goalkeeping from Scott McGee that kept a clean sheet. Melbourn responded with another fine counter attack seeing Sam Chamberlain turn on a sixpence to just shoot wide.

The second half sprung into action with St Neots dominating the early exchanges. Melbourn remained resilient and again focussed on the counter attack with a good pass putting Beatie through to force and fine save.

It remained end to end stuff with a tough battling midfield keeping Melbourn in the game until a cruel twist of fate in the last minute saw them concede as a result of three consecutive corners. It was a sucker blow to a team that played their hearts out to match a team riding high at the top of the league.

Melbourn Dynamos Panthers 4 Tring Tornadoes U-11 0

THE draw pitched north against south for this fourth round county cup-tie but the visitors made the long trek only to return home empty handed.

It looked as though Panthers had other things on their mind during a subdued first half performance that could easily have seen the visitors establish the lead.

With eight or nine players forming a defensive wall, Tring closed down Melbourn and took every opportunity to push the ball forward, which occasionally saw the Panthers defence struggling to protect goalkeeper Nick Thompson.

The second half was an entirely different story as Panthers got the ball down and started to play quality, passing football.

The first goal was somewhat fortuitous with a Byron Lawrence shot taking a couple of ricochets between goalkeeper and defender before crossing the line.

It gave Melbourn just the boost they needed and when Patrick Hopper charged down a clearance, smashing the ball into the net, the scoreline already looked out of reach for the visitors.

Webb scored a quality third for Melbourn, rounding off a superb passing move by skillfully beating two players before dispatching the ball beyond the keeper and Jordan Hardwidge capped a committed performance by scoring his first of the season and Panther's fourth.

Stevenage Town Youth Barca 7 Melbourn Dynamos Tigers U-11 0

A LIVELY start from the Tigers saw some promising midfield work from Josh Chamberlain and George Birch with Mathew Davis making important interceptions to keep the margin down.

Once again Jack Ovens was called upon to put on a display of outstanding goalkeeping, and 3-0 scoreline at the break was harsh on the Tigers considering the amount of effort the team had put in and the amount of possession they had in the first period.

The second half saw some excellent ball control by Tom Lee which allowed Brennan Friel a run on goal with a fine shot being parried by the Barca keeper, the ball fell to Josh Chamberlain who was brought down in the box for a Tigers penalty.

The resulting spot kick was not converted, however the Tigers heads were held up, and the endeavour of Josh Jones and Jack Hammond at the back with Cameron Douglas making important clearances helped to keep the Stevenage strikers frustrated.

Despite some excellent shots on target from Friel, Lee, Chamberlain and Adam Breeze the Barca keeper, to his credit, kept a clean sheet.

The result, however disappointing for the Tigers, saw a great improvement in their overall performance and effort, with both sets of spectators enjoying a well contested game of football.