Ross Juniors U10s welcomed Ledbury Colts for their Mailes Cup quarter-final tie. Having scored 21 goals in their two previous games against their opponents you could have been forgiven for thinking the outcome would be a formality for the home side, but that couldn’t have been further from the truth.

Ross-on-Wye had the better of the early stages, with Jake going close from a direct free kick and then a header from JT’s corner. Luca forced the Ledbury keeper into a save and at the other end Josh made a vital tackle as Ledbury counter-attacked. Ross eventually went ahead when Jake met another JT corner with a nice strike which the keeper initially saved, but Jake managed to prod the ball home at the 2nd attempt.

The home side continued to threaten and following a great tackle, Bill threaded the ball between two defenders to find Luca in the penalty area, but he shot narrowly wide. Luca soon made amends, though this time he played a delightful pass to Eddie who made it 2 – 0. It might have been three minutes later that Luca’s shot from distance was pushed onto the crossbar by the keeper and Harvey followed up but headed it just over.

All seemed to be going to plan until Ledbury were awarded a free kick in a dangerous position. The shot took a deflection off the defensive wall and found the top corner giving Roo no chance in the Ross goal. As the half time drew close Eddie had a shot blocked following Luca’s pass and Harvey had a shot saved.

The second half started well for Ross, although Roo was forced into a save early on. Ross went 3 – 1 ahead when Jake played in Luca who finished expertly slotting the ball into the bottom corner. Ledbury changed formation and started to commit more players forward and almost got through until David’s timely intervention. With more players committed forward there was more space to exploit and JT and Harvey both had shots that narrowly missed the target.

Harvey saw another shot go wide before hitting a wonderful shot that cannoned off the crossbar. It was all Ross now and Gwills had two great chances to score when picked out at the far post, but one shot went wide and the other was well saved by the keeper.

Eddie also had a great chance to score but narrowly missed the target before Ledbury took advantage of a defensive mix up to reduce the lead to one.

As the clock ticked down Luca had a chance to make the game safe but the Ledbury keeper made a great save and then Ledbury equalised when the Ross defence failed to make a clearance.

The six minutes of extra time flew by, but with practically the last kick of the game, Jake struck the Ledbury crossbar from a direct free kick and somehow Ledbury managed to clear the ball.

Into the dreaded penalty shoot-out and with Jake, Luca and David converting their kicks and Roo pulling off an important save, Ross advanced to the semi-final.

The Masons Fencing & Firewood Man of the Match goes to Luca Morgan for his hard work, well taken goal and one assist.