The Ross Juniors Colts U17s travelled to Ludlow on Sunday, February 19th and came home celebrating a 5-2 win. This match followed a fixture the previous Sunday against the Ledbury Swifts Athletic, which ended in a disappointing draw. This meant that that the boys needed a win to get back on track.

The first half kicked off and Ross had Ludlow on the back foot from the start, and Jack and Erny caused the defence problems with their pace and skill.

Wilf, Aaron, Nat and Dan F were dictating play in the midfield and, on one occasion, Wilf lobbed a perfect ball over Ludlow’s defence. Erny ran onto the ball and calmly fired it past the keeper.

The boys were on top of the game and would have been well ahead if it wasn’t for the Ludlow keeper, who made some really good saves. On one other occasion, Jack ran onto another great ball from Wilf, and Jack drew out the keeper and stroked the ball into the net. Much to everyone’s dismay, their linesman flagged Jack offside, even though he had run from behind the defender.

Ludlow did start to get into the game and were rewarded with an equaliser, after Archie parried a shot which fell to their unmarked forward in the six yard box who tapped it in. This was a bit of a wake-up call for the lads and, for the rest of the first half, they were camped in the Ludlow side of the pitch, dominating all of the play.

Ludlow struggled to contain The Colts and gave away a few corners and, from one of these, Dan C powered a shot into the top corner from the edge of the box. This gave Ross a deserved lead going into half time.

Manager, Tony Fletcher, made a few changes at half time, bringing Lewis, Charlie, Pirlo and Will M on for the second half.

The boys were on the front foot from the off and were running their opponents ragged at times. Ludlow had two penalties awarded against them. These were both coolly dispatched by Wilf and Pirlo respectively.

Ludlow did manage the odd foray into The Colts half, which did result in them scoring a second goal, but, by and large, the back four of Myles, H, Dan C and Marcus dealt with most things that Ludlow had to offer.

The Colts weren’t quite finished though, and in the move of the match, after Erny won possession, he put a great ball into Pirlo’s path. Pirlo raced into the 18 yard box and fired an unstoppable shot into the top corner, leaving the keeper flapping at thin air.

Tony told the Ross Gazette:?“This was a brilliant performance from The Colts and to be fair if they had scored all of their chances, it could have been double figures.”

The Saracens Head Inn man of the match was Dan Champness. Tony said:?“He defended brilliantly, both in the air and on the ground and he also scored a great goal.”

On Sunday, The Colts face a hard game at home against Pegasus Juniors, who are unbeaten.