It was a bitterly cold morning as the two Ross U10s teams clashed in this half term league fixture. The Colts had a couple of players missing, whereas the Juniors welcomed back Theo from his long absence, and were at full strength.

The Juniors started well and in the opening minutes Eddie had an early shot saved and Bill fired over from distance. The ‘home’ side opened the scoring through a good team move, when Theo beat an opponent on the right wing before playing the ball inside to Eddie, who in turn laid the ball across the goalmouth to Harvey.

Although the Colts’ keeper saved Harvey’s initial shot, he made no mistake with the rebound. The Juniors were soon two up when Eddie followed up on Harvey’s goal-bound effort to make sure.

Moments later, Jake made it three when Bill and Harvey combined to set him up. Roo made a comfortable save from a Colts’ shot from distance but had little more to do thanks to great defending from David, JT and Bill. Midway through the first half the Juniors added a fourth goal when Jake’s pass split the defence. Eddie beat the keeper and found the bottom corner with a brilliant finish.

As the home side continued to go forward, Owen put in a great cross for Eddie, but his shot went the wrong side of the post, then Owen saw his own shot go wide too. The Juniors continued to threaten as Harvey had a shot saved, and so did David after a precise pass from Jake. Just before the break the Juniors went 5 – 0 up when David laid the ball back to Jake who struck a sweet shot into the top left-hand corner.

The Juniors almost scored from their first attack of the second half when David set up Eddie but his shot was pushed on to the post by the Colts’ keeper. Luca then set up JT but his shot was blocked. David had another shot saved before Eddie scored his third thanks to JT’s fine run. It was soon seven when Gwills was on hand to poke the ball into the back of the net, for his first league goal of the season.

The Colts had a great chance to pull a goal back when they beat the Juniors defence but Harvey raced out of goal to make a vital clearance. JT shot wide following a counter-attack, but minutes later found the back of the net to make it eight with a well struck shot into the bottom corner. Gwills scored his 2nd goal following a solo run, and almost claimed a hat-trick when set up by JT following a great pass from Roo. The game ended with 9-0 to Ross Juniors U10s.

The Masons Fencing & Firewood Man of the Match goes to Jake Hedges for two well taken goals and some great passes.