28th September 2002
Emmanuel U16 5-4 Whetstone
LEFC Under 16 won their first game of the season, winning 5 - 4 against Whetstone.
LEFC fielded a depleted team (Ben Blackledge broken arm, Sol Grist injured leg, Peter Coombs injured knee, David Holland, Tom Wright, Ally Arnold unavailable). Meant a totally untried formation, many players playing in unfamiliar positions and with unfamiliar teammates.
Those watching were treated to a closely fought game, end to end stuff and saw LEFC take the lead through Phil Lowe followed quickly by a second from Ben Greenwood who got on the end of a brilliant first time pass from Chris Nedza.
LEFC were unlucky to concede a penalty when the referee said Pez shoved an opposing player out of the way (when will FIFA ensure consistency???). Sim could do nothing to stop an excellent penalty kick but we went into Half Time with a deserved 2 - 1 lead.
The second half saw Whetstone draw level, LEFC then took a two goal lead (scored again by Phil), Whetstone came back strongly with two of their own and then Phil scored the winner. The last minutes saw Matt Guilder, Chris Nedza, Ben Greenwood, Alan Hulse all narrowly missing whilst Sim made a number of match winning saves at the other end including one which he tipped onto the bar, the ball then rolled along the length of the cross bar finally falling to the feet of Matt Ashworth who cleared into touch.
Man of the Match was difficult to call there being so many outstanding performances, Alan chased everything, Phil scored 4 (I think), Ben did extremely well on the left whilst Ross did the same on the right, Matt Ashworth playing out of position in defense did well, as did Matt Guilder (Captain for the day). The two Afgani's Sam and Sham held their own when called to do so, but the man of the match was awarded to Sim for pulling off numerous goal stopping and match saving saves.