Something of a turnup for the books – this evening’s FA Youth Cup encounter being abandoned after a lengthy half-time delay.
Although extremely chilly, the conditions weren’t appreciably worse than a few other recent games at Landore. Neither was there was any noticeable loss of control of the ball or challenges during the first half. I expect though that the falling temperatures convinced the match official that matters were only going to get worse.
There was a larger than usual attendance at Landore this evening giving our youngsters great encouragement.
Fulham readily displayed the hallmarks of a very sharp and talented side, moving the ball quickly around and forcing our team on the backfoot for much of the early part of the game. We started with a familiar 3-4-2-1 setup, but soon had to adapt to deal with an aggressive visiting formation that often saw 4 players up front. Tom Searle had to forfeit his right sided wing back role to attend to Fulham’s lively two footed winger Lemar Gordon. Midway through the first half, our harassed team adopted a 5-2-2-1 shape to deal with the fairly relentless attacks. It meant that our usual creative outlets weren’t seeing a great deal of the ball.
We showed great discipline to withstand the pressure, having to do a lot of chasing as the Fulham side pushed the ball around at pace. Still, Fulham chances were limited – shots from Essenga and Gordon being repelled, some last ditch defending thwarting other efforts. Centre forward Loupalo-Bi strayed offside when converting on the end of another flowing move involving Osmand and Gordon.
Completely against the run of play, a mistake at the other end let in Rohan Davies on 40 minutes. He had two shots denied by the keeper and Yori Griffith followed up to put the Swans 1-0 up.
We held out until half-time, with the promise of a further stern test after the interval – only for the referee to decide the pitch was unfit to allow play to continue.
Sterling performances from the entire team, notably Iestyn Jones, Jack Fanning and Dan Watts. We’ll no doubt know what to expect for the re-run.
Feature Image Credit: Majestic Media