LEPTON HIGHLANDERS ‘A’2HOWDEN CLOUGH ‘A’3

As with all the other Highlanders teams that reached Cup Finals this season, our U14 team went down to a narrow defeat against our bogey team, Howden Clough. Our opponents should be congratulated for winning the Cup an incredible 5 years in a row but they know that, on this occasion, they were lucky victors.

Conditions at the Syngenta Sports Grounds were heavy after yet another rainy day but both teams made light of conditions to provide a really entertaining match. In contrast to Lepton’s nervy display in the semi-finals this was a really open match full of fine attacking football.

In an evenly-contested opening, the highlight was a fine run and shot from fully 30 yards by Lepton left-winger, Tom HALTON. The Howden Clough keeper stood helpless but the ball didn’t quite dip in time and just cleared the bar.

Just after the quarter-hour mark, Lepton took the lead after a foul on Will LORD. From the resultant free-kick by skipper Lewis ALLOTT, Howden Clough’s offside trap broke down and Declan McGIVERN hooked the ball  home on the volley in fine style. Within 5 minutes the Lepton advantage was doubled as a superb through ball from Jimmy BURKE saw Josh WOMERSLEY nip in between the two central defenders to finish with great aplomb.

For the remainder of the half, Lepton continued to edge matters and Ryan EVANS nearly broke through after a fine run. Meanwhile, Howden Clough were restricted to a couple of long range efforts as stand-in keeper Kerby McKENNA dealt confidentally with everything that came his way.

Soon after the start of the second half came what may have been the decisive moment of the game. After a clash of heads just outside the Lepton box, the Howden Clough player went down injured. It seemed that the referee was going to award a drop-ball but incredibly after the Clough forward had received treatment they were given a free-kick just on the edge of the area. Howden Clough’s no 8 struck a lower skidder which eluded the grasp of McKENNA to make it 2-1.

Despite this setback, Lepton continued to dominate proceedings as Howden Clough were limited to the long ball over the top. Lepton were playing most of the quality football and were creating the majority of the chances but just could not find that elusive third goal as, in particular, McGIVERN and WOMERSLEY came close to adding to their earlier efforts.

With about five minutes of normal time left on the clock, Howden Clough scored an equalizer – a scrappy goal from Lepton’s point of view as we failed to clear the ball on a couple of occasions. Their spirits raised, Howden Clough continued to press and forced a corner. From their right flank the inswinging corner went directly in – a lucky goal it has to be said.

At this stage normal time was up, but the referee (who had done Lepton no favours) did play 3 or 4 minutes of added time for substitutions and injuries. During this time McGIVERN went desperately close with a driving run into the box as his shot from an angle hit the outside of the post.

However, it was not to be and the final whistle went with the scoreline 3-2 in favour of Howden Clough. The Lepton team were devastated after dominating a game when a winning margin of 4 or 5 goals would not have been an injustice. However, fair play to Howden Clough for their spirited comeback from two down. They were magnaminous in victory and freely acknowledged that Lepton were the better team but Clough’s name was on the Cup (as it has been in previous years).

The Lepton boys can hold their heads up high – they gave a fine performance on the big stage and Lady Luck just wasn’t with them. Hopefully next year will see this team get its just rewards – they are certainly good enough if they continue to play like this.

LEPTON HIGHLANDERS ‘A’ Line Up :

Kerby McKenna, Will Lord, Mitchell Ellwood-Spencer, Michael Jessop, Lewis Allott (capt), Ben Robinson, Ryan Evans, Declan McGivern, Josh Womersley, Mark Godley, Tom Halton. SUBS : Bradley Bond, Jimmy Burke & Adam Holt.