Ross Juniors U12s ran out 4 – 2 winners against Leominster Colts on Saturday.

It was Leominster who had the best of the early play, forcing Roo to make a couple of saves in the Ross goal and striking the home side’s post from an angled effort. But Ross took the lead when Ollie was brought down in the penalty area and Jake dispatched the resultant kick. Ross soon doubled their lead when JT sent in a dangerous cross that went straight in. The remainder of the half was pretty even, with Ethan, Jake and Josh defending well, and Julien and Theo working well in central midfield. Ollie was terrorising Leominster down the left with some great runs. Two late chances fell to Tom and he was unfortunate to see both shots go wide.

Ross dominated the chances early in the 2nd half with Jake (now in attack) firing a chance wide, Aaron seeing his goal-bound effort well saved and then striking the Leominster post. Jake came close to extending the lead with another effort that went narrowly wide before heading in JT’s corner. Leominster pulled a goal back but Ross continued to cause them problems especially with some great runs down the left by Jayden. Ross almost scored from one of Jayden’s runs as his cross flashed across the Leominster goal just needing a touch from somebody. A great solo run and finish saw Jake claim his hat-trick but Leominster pulled a goal back almost instantly with a direct free kick. This seemed to lift Leominster and they finished strongly, forcing Roo to make a couple of important saves and a courageous block to ensure Ross maintained their two goal advantage and make it back to back wins in the league preliminaries.

Once again there were some good individual performances but the Saltrock Scaffolding Man of the Match was awarded to Jake Hedges for his solid defending in the first half and three well-taken goals.