Junior Football

SIX goals from striker Ollie Brothwood and a confident, hard-working team performance helped get Sheppey Swifts off to the perfect start in the Ambassador League.

On 16 minutes, Sheppey went ahead when Dan Evans’ low cross was turned in neatly by Brothwood.

Alveston briefly threatened to grab an equaliser but Sheppey’s quick counter-attacking caught out the hosts with two goals in a minute.

First, Brent McOrmish turned in a Brothwood cross on 27 minutes before the latter beat the offside trap to run on and squeeze the ball past the keeper.

A minute before the break, the home side got on the scoresheet when Sheppey’s defence failed to clear from an Alveston attack and Grant Simmons slotted the ball past keeper Josh Rogers.

This goal spurred Alveston on at the start of the second-half and they twice went close through George Mills and Simmons.

This was before keeper Rogers pushed over a cross from the right that was dipping under the bar.

But, on 43 minutes, McOrmish’s pass down the wing found Brothwood, whose cross was slotted home by Evans.

Six minutes later it was 5-1, Cavan Ryan scoring from the edge of the box with the best shot of the match. A minute later Brothwood completed his hat-trick after some neat passes between Evans and Ryan.

Brave goalkeeping by Alveston keeper Sam Truman twice denied Evans, diving at his feet when the striker was clear of the last defender, before substitute Danny Tustin got in on the act, turning in crosses in the six-yard box, first from Evans, then Brothwood.

Alveston got a goal back when Mills broke away from the Sheppey defence and slotted into the net past Rogers to make it 8-2.

But the final five minutes was one-way traffic with Sheppey scoring three further goals close in through man-of-the-match Brothwood.

Evesham United Robins u12s 6, Gloster Meteors u12s 0.

EVESHAM were on form with some lovely attacking play, but had to defend at times.

Evesham’s first goal came from Bradley Izod who coolly finished when put through by Tariq Lamb. Thomas Backx then slotted home a nice finish to make it 2-0. Just before half-time Evesham went 3-0 up when Ben Ainsworth sent Dominic Taylor clear on goal and he fired in under the keeper.

After the break, Evesham kept creating chances but good goalkeeping kept the score at 3-0. From a corner by Jonathon Robinson, Ainsworth scored with a first- time shot on the edge of the box.

From another Robinson corner, William Warren headed a fine goal to make it 5-0 and, with minutes to play, Izod scored his second to round off the scoring.

Peopleton Juniors u15s 3, Broadway Youth u15s 1.

PEOPLETON Juniors u15s began the new campaign with a home win against a strong Broadway side. The early play was dominated by Broadway, whose attacking style was rewarded in the 14th minute with a well-taken goal from close-range.

It seemed to be going all wrong for Peopleton who shortly afterwards, lost centre-forward George Fletcher to an injury. With no available substitutes, 10-man Peopleton raised their game significantly and a cleared Broadway corner was counter-attacked by James Baldwin who ran from the half-way line to level the score.

After the break, Peopleton fought with even more resolve and took the lead with a free-kick just outside the area, fired sweetly into the roof of the net by Dan Rushton.

The game was sealed in the 70th minute when Kyle Ballard found the net from a corner.

Pershore Town u13s 0, Badsey Rangers u13s 1.

A HARD-fought tussle between these two local rivals saw Badsey edge to victory.

This was the first league game of the season and it was played at Pershore Town’s headquarters under the floodlights. Badsey took the lead after only 10 minutes when a fine move down the right, started by Charlie Banning, was moved on smartly by Nathan Bolland to Tom Benfield who found the top corner.

Badsey went looking for a second while they were on top and if it hadn’t been for some good defending by Pershore, it would have been two.

As the half went on Pershore forced three corners and from the third they nearly equalised when a great flick was saved by Josh Mann in the Badsey goal.

As the second-half went on Ryan Attwood and James Spencer in the centre of Badsey’s defence coped well with Pershore’s forceful play.

With Pershore forced to shooting from long distances, Jordan Nailor and Robbie Wallace picked holes in their defence and eventually the final whistle sounded and the right result on the night was recorded.

Badsey Rangers u16s tasted defeat for the first time this season against Forest Green Rovers.

Badsey scored through an Alex Trotman brace and one apiece for Jack Milward and Louis Sutton.