Melbourn Dynamos Panthers 2 Bishop s Stortford Town U-11 2 A FINE performance saw Panthers take a point from league leaders Stortford. With a slimmed-down squad and midfielder Toby Jackson now taking up goalkeeping duties, the Panthers had to quic

Melbourn Dynamos Panthers 2 Bishop's Stortford Town U-11 2

A FINE performance saw Panthers take a point from league leaders Stortford.

With a slimmed-down squad and midfielder Toby Jackson now taking up goalkeeping duties, the Panthers had to quickly adapt, and they made a positive start with both sides being very evenly matched for the first 15 minutes.

It was the Panthers who had the first clear-cut chance when Byron Lawrence put Patrick Hopper clear, and although the visitors recovered to see off the threat it showed the Panthers were up for the contest.

Stortford squandered a great opportunity to go one up shortly afterwards, shooting just wide - and Melbourn almost punished the mistake five minutes later when Byron Lawrence latched on to a throw-in and fired in a blistering shot, but again the ball drifted wide of the mark.

Just before the break the visitors finally made the breakthrough when the Panthers gave them space in the box, and the visitors slotted the ball home from close range.

Panthers kept things tight in the second half, and finally levelled the scores when Alex Martin connected with a Byron Lawrence corner to head home brilliantly.

Lifting their game at this point, the Panthers piled on the pressure and took the lead when another Lawrence through ball enabled Patrick Hopper to coolly lift the ball over a helpless Bishop's Stortford keeper to make the score 2-1.

With a quarter of an hour to go the visitors fought back, forcing several great saves from Toby Jackson until finally breaching the Melbourn defence with a deflected shot to bring the scores level again.

Hormead Hares U-8 1 Melbourn Dynamos Panthers 1

AN entertaining game saw the spoils shared on Saturday morning.

For the second match running Panthers used a triple substitution approach before half time - this week it paid dividends with George Storey opening the scoring after a determined run from midway in the Hares' half.

Hares immediately responded with an equaliser, firing a low shot into the corner of the net.

The second half saw both teams competing for a winner - Josh Bates marshalled the Panther's defence with Saffron Henry and Oli Johnson supporting to keep the Hares attacks at bay.

Panthers player of the match Tom Hollway supplied some telling passes and unlimited running to give opportunities for Luke Eades and Dani Friel to snatch a late winner - but to no avail.

Hormead Hares U-8 4 Melbourn Dynamos Tigers 1

HARES took control early on in a competitive and hard fought match. Melbourn defended well with some god interceptions by Andrew Chitty and Thomas Lucas.

However they were powerless to stop Hares racing to a 2-0 lead thanks to two quality strikes from outside the penalty area which gave Conner Patel no chance in the Tigers goal.

Tigers replied in determined fashion and pulled a goal back with a great team effort starting well inside their own half. Josh Bates gained possession and fed a nice pass down the line for George Storey to shrug off a couple of challenges and fire high into the Hares net.

Melbourn increased the pressure straight from the restart with Ryan Barton and Jack Morley making some great runs into the Hares half in search of an equaliser.

Unfortunately they could only watch as another quality strike from outside the box nestled in the back of the Tigers net to make it 3-1.

The second half was well contested with Tigers missing two close range opportunities to get back in the game, Matthew Harris involved in both efforts.

Hares scored a fourth early in the second half but Tigers never gave up, Charlotte Knight battled well in midfield and Luke Eades made some dazzling runs to no avail.