Saintfield U18s make a brave bid against Albert Foundry U18s
The semi final hopes all but ended after Albert Foundry defeated Saintfield FC U18s.
Saintfield FC U18s travelled to Paisley Park to face Albert Foundry at their home ground on Friday evening, where a win for the Saints in their final supplementary game would give them a great chance to finish top four in the group and qualify for a semi-final writes Jack Brown.
Although Saintfield did play great football, with Patrick, from goal kicks, finding Adam or Ryan who fed it to the willing Camden who pushed it on to the adjacent Ross or Calum, Albert Foundry dealt with runners and space well, challenging for any loose passes or touches.
An early indication of danger came from set pieces, where an in-swinging corner was met by a Foundry header.
Just as it looked to be looping over Patrick and under the bar, Matthew J showed a tremendous leap from a standing jump to head the ball off the line.
While Saintfield maintained their good passing football, Albert Foundry were still having the better chances.
When a chance fell to a Foundry striker, before the ball could continue its trajectory towards the goal, Patrick spread himself wide and took one in the chest. However, the rebound fell to another attacker, who hit it towards a goalkeeperless net, where Ryan was on the line to leave a trailing leg and prevent it from crossing the line.
With Calum making those driving runs from midfield, it seemed no space would open up for Joshua and Noah H on the wings, as Foundry defended the width of the goal very well, leaving Jamie to wrestle with two physical centre-halves.
And between goal-line clearances and Rian at right-back making some fantastic recovery tackles, it looked as though Saintfield might ride their luck and get in at half-time unscathed.
However, it wasn’t meant to be.
Foundry worked the ball in the box again and, although Patrick pulled off yet another close-range save, the rebound fell to an unmarked attacker, who knocked it into the net, with Matthew J nearly clearing it off the line again, to give them a half-time lead.
With Saintfield having come back from a bigger margin before, one goal was not insurmountable, and they nearly equalised with the first chance of the half.
Ryan stood over a free-kick, wide enough to make everyone think it was a promising crossing position, but the curl of the ball sailed over heads and beyond the glance of the keeper to smash off the crossbar and back into play, where it was then cleared.
Buoyed by the early chance, the next best opportunity came from another centre-half, when a ball was played into the box and Matthew D showed the composure to stop the ball dead in the air, but Adam’s shot from six yards just went wide of the post.
Now it was Albert Foundry’s turn in the driving seat, when a half-cleared ball from a corner fell to their striker on the edge of the box, which would have sailed into the top corner if it had not been for yet another goal-line clearance from Ryan, who showed bravery to head the powerful shot away—so powerful that it caused a bit of dizziness and he needed a break to regain his bearings.
Having probably used up their luck for the season, Saintfield conceded a second a few minutes later.
They successfully defended the first phase of play, but, similar to his first effort, the Albert Foundry striker hit the ball in the box low and hard through numerous bodies, unsighting Patrick, and it went into the bottom corner.
Saintfield did get one last hope when Foundry were reduced to 10 men with 10 minutes to go.
Cue the Patrick-to-Rian, Rian-to-Matthew D plays, where Matthew D travelled from the first third to the final third countless times in the dying minutes to ignite something.
Good crosses were headed away, passes inside were battled well, and passes outside ended up as throws to Saintfield, which ran down the clock even more.
The line was breached when new signing Andrew, who had just returned from injury, played a crisp ball behind the full-back to the overlapping Rian, but nobody gambled towards the front post, and Foundry kept their clean sheet intact and came out 2-0 winners.
Matthew J was awarded Man of the Match, with his strong form in central defence carrying over seamlessly to left back.
His commanding voice is always heard—organizing the team when Saintfield are out of possession and motivating individuals when they have the ball—making him a natural leader on the pitch.
