Lisvane Panthers Under 13 2007/2008 season
Lisvane Panthers have 3 teams at Under 13 level - U13 Orange, U13 Black and U13 Blue.
Under 13 Cup
Lisvane Panthers U13 Black: 3 - Splott Black: 2
Venue: Pontcanna
With the lad's season well underway and after three successful games so far, we were up against a team who we believe took our rightful spot in the A division so lots to prove tonight.
The lads started well and attacked the Splott goal with vigour. Lisvane took an early lead in the first half after we were awarded a free kick about 6 yards outside the Splott box way out to the right. Hugh Meatyard stepped up to the mark and fired a long range shot way in to the top of the net and above the arms of the out stretched Splott keeper.
Splott bounced back quickly with a long ball over the top of the Lisvane defence, for their strikers to run on to and place the ball passed our keeper to level the score. This tact worked quite well for Splott as they quickly followed with a further goal to take a 2 goal to 1 lead.
Lisvane heads seemed to drop from here and all but a few of the team seemed to resign themselves to a short run in the cup this season.
With minutes to go Jack Caswell fired a corner into the box for a goal mouth scramble to be pushed clear for another corner.With a change of personnel, Hugh Meatyard took the next corner and again a goal mouth scramble took place with the Splott keeper padding several shots off from the Lisvane attack. The ball fell to the feet of Jack Caswell who with his back to goal drew the ball back turned and fired a left footed shot in to the back of the net to level the score at two each.
With the light failing quickly the lads moved in to extra time with a new lease of life and the tired legs of the previous thirty minutes seemed to be working again, as the team realised they had a chance, and they did just that .
After several breaks through the Splott defence the ball was pushed through to a James Gough running at full pace who took the ball into the box and pushed it passed a diving keeper into the back of the net.
With the score now at 3-2 Lisvane settled down and defended their lead with ease. With our back line of Michael Ward , Simon Davies, Jack Lewis and Alex Williams dealing with every attack that Splott had left in the bank.
The final whistle came and Lisvane ended Splott's run in this years cup competition with a scoreline of 3-2 and an impressive display in extra time, proving that the game is never lost until the final whistle.
Fantastic displays tonight from Michael Ward, Jack Lewis, Hugh Meatyard, and Jack Caswell, with a sound display in goal from Harry Squire.
(Adam Caswell)
Under 13 B Division
Lisvane Panthers U13 Black: 7 - Thornhill Athletic: 2
Venue: Pontcanna
This was to be the return match of the season against the Thornhill side that we had comfortably beaten only weeks earlier in the season; a similar result was required for us to maintain our clutch on the top spot in the division.
The game started at a slow pace with the lads seeming to be overly confident of a repeat performance and an expectation of a big winning score line.
After a ball played in from James Gough, Leo Llewellyn opened the scoring for Lisvane Panthers, only for our usually strong defence to let the Thornhill striker through their line to score an equaliser shortly after.
With heads up and confidence running high the Thornhill side quickly broke our defence down again and with a sloppy shot coming off the feet of in form defender Simon Davies and beyond the grasp of Harry Squire who failed to take command his area allowing the ball into the back of the net to take the score to 2 -1 to Thornhill.
The performance so far left a lot to be desired and with a few changes of position and a touch line pep talk calmly given by manager Andy Ward the lads set about the task in hand. ( For those watching the game I did same calmly! There is no mention of the volume of the pep talk- ha ha).
At last the game started to take some sort of shape and with Michael Ward back in his normal centre back position, the defensive line seemed to be playing again to their normal strengths. Nick Cugno levelled the score shortly after and the lads pushed on creating chances. NOT TAKING THEM! but creating them.
Goals from Nick Cugno and Jack Diamond took the half time score to a more respectable 4 - 2 to Lisvane.
With the normal half time team talk out of the way the boys addressed the field for what was to become the most frustrating game of football any one has ever witnessed.
The Lisvane lads had finally realised that the game was there for the taking and with no substitutes to offer the Thornhill side were tiring.
The lads set about camping on the half way line allowing entrance into our half of the pitch to our opposition only a handful of times.
We showed that we had a skillfull side who could pass the ball around maintaining possession.
We showed we had a side that could run with the ball and attack defences tearing them apart.
We showed that we had players with blistering pace to take the play down the flanks and fire inch perfect crosses into the box for the waiting crowds of attacking players.
We proved we had a defensive line not afraid to run the ball back at their opposition and stop any attack our opponents had too offer.
We proved that a ball that measures only 11 inches across will not, no matter how hard you try, no matter how many times you try, (and the final count at the end of the second half was in excess of 22 attempts ) will not, I REPEAT, go into the back of a net of area about 90 square feet.
To the amusement of the Thornhill goal keeper and coach as a side we could not finish.
The lads continued with the game, in our opponents half firing wave after wave of attack until finally the force field fell and allowed a Jack Caswell shot passed the keeper and into the net.
The pressure was now on to take a further lead in the game and with Leo Llewellyn adding two more goals to his earlier goal the game frustratingly for all ended with the panthers winning 7-2. with the thoughts of what the score line could and should have been a long and distant memory.
Had the team not played as well as they had the final team talk would have been longer. but with the message of 'YOU HAVE TO TAKE YOUR CHANCES' ringing in the ears, the lads departed leaving the coaching team with some thoughts about the sessions for the weeks ahead.
Well done guys.
(Adam Caswell)