Ascot United Veterans v The Folt FC Veterans

Report

New dawn – AUFC Vets 2^nd XI take the stage

A crisp evening as the first ever Ascot United Vets 2^nd XI match took place at the racecourse ground. The opposition were a good and young outfit.

FOLT started brightly and had deep runners providing a threat. They dominated the early exchanges and Ascot fell very deep, found it hard to get out and were giving the ball away quite cheaply. A shaky Ascot start but it has been 19 weeks since the last competitive game for most of the team so that was understandable. FOLT moved the ball well, found gaps and were 5-0 in the first half hour and it was going to need some real resilience from the Ascot team to stop this becoming a rout. A stronger and more positive last 15 mins of the first half stemmed the leakage. That was a great effort as the FOLT side has a particularly young midfielders and central defenders.

Ascot lost Carl England with a knee injury in the first five minutes and we wish him a speedy recovery.

Second half started with a change of shape and a much improved Ascot began to take control of the game. Passing improved as did Ascot’s control of the game. Abbas was a constant threat down the left flank linking well in 55^th minute with Chris and Mick then sliding a great ball in behind the defence and Martin racing on just lifted his shot over the bar. 2 minutes later and another move down the right orchestrated by Stu produced a half chance to John Gavin but the defender just got a touch first. Abbas was now combining well with Mick and Hambo with two half chances created. A great piece of skill from Hambo to beat his defender and the shot crashed into the side netting. A really great response from  the team in the second half.  There were chances at the other end. Ed and Kev in goal held firm. Mick and Jad were proving hard to get past.

With 5 minutes to go, FOLT got another following a corner with a good volley into the corner. That goal seemed harsh on Ascot but they bounced back again and with the last move of the match. Jez drove forward with the ball holding off defenders and played in John Heard, he dinked a cross back to Jez at the far post who got there before the keeper and slid the ball underneath him. The ball was running out of steam but John Gavin wasn’t and he was following up to give Ascot a much deserved goal (and equaliser in the second half).

A tough start, a great response and a huge welcome to Ascot United Vets 2^nd XI.  No backward steps

Team : Patterson, Sidhu, Tredwell, du Bois, Parker, (Strictly) Heard, Kay, Flurry (c), Hussain, England, Myhan; Lewis, Page, Gavin, Spence, Hamblin