F.A. Charter Standard Club

Under 13's

Report by Andy Hornsey

Under 13s - Burton Junior Football League

Trent Trophies Division One.

Rocester Elkes Eagles 8 Rolleston 1

Rocester Elkes Eagles expected a difficult game against Rolleston when the sides met in the BJFL Division 1 on Sunday. Rocester had never managed to beat Rolleston in their three previous encounters and were also missing a couple of their regular staring eleven.

From the kick-off Rocester didn’t seem to have much energy and were struggling to deal with the pace of the Rolleston right wing, but despite this threat Rocester had a good proportion of possession and within five minutes of the start George Pauley received the ball in midfield and with great composure took a lofted shot at goal which beat the Rolleston keeper and gave Rocester the lead.

The goal from Pauley was a catalyst for the rest of the team and surely enough just three minutes later a pass through to Steve Whitehall was fired into the back of the Rolleston net to make it 2-0.

Halfway through the first half a pass from Callum Liebsch to Steve Whitehall was finished with precision to make the score 3-0,  and Steve completed his hat-trick soon afterwards.

With Minutes to go before half-time, a fabulous move from Rocester saw a well timed pass fed through from Jon Lee to Steve Whitehall who scored what must be the goal of the season with his back to goal and a bicycle kick.

At half time Rocester reflected on the 5-0 lead and knew that they would have a harder second half playing downhill given the pace of some of the Rolleston team.

Rolleston, with nothing to lose, seemed more of a threat after the break and following a period of pressure they managed to shoot at the Rocester goal only for a Adam Smith to make a fantastic save. The ball was then kicked out of Adam’s hands by a Rolleston player and into the back of the net but thankfully it was disallowed.

Halfway through the second half a corner resulted in a volleyed shot from Reece Brown to give Rocester a 6-0 lead, and that was followed ten minutes later by a pass through from Jamie Ward to Steve Whitehall to see him score his 5th goal of the game, bringing his overall tally to 14 goals in 4 games for Rocester which is a fantastic achievement.

With only 5 minutes of the game remaining, the Rocester defence were caught out when they tried to dribble the ball in their own half only to lose possession when a simple pass could have been achieved and Rolleston where able to secure a consolatory goal as a result.

With seconds before the final whistle, Jamie Ward managed to score from a ball fed in from a corner kick which was a pleasing moment to see him get his first goal for the club.

The team performance was a good one, a thoroughly deserved win and no doubt proved to be interesting for the Stretton Eagles Manager (the team 1 point above Rocester) who has been in attendance for Rocesters last 5 games!

Man of the match: Jack Cooper, who was strong and determined and dealt with all the dangerous situations during the game. Well done Jack!