Even with the benefit of a few hours distance, a first team game in between and a drying off, this still seems another in a long line of highly entertaining home games at this level.
Bournemouth brought a few supporters / parents with them. The match administration was pretty spartan today – no teamsheet, no announcer. Of course this made it rather difficult to work out the opposition, although a couple of the faces looked familiar from last season. Our former academy centre half Teo Minchev wasn’t in the Bournemouth team today.
The match was played in howling wind and rain. Welcome to Wales!
2 of the visiting spectators were grandparents of Bournemouth midfielder Josh Salmon, who’s been part of this season’s Wales U18s set up with our Iestyn Jones and Brogan Popham. Josh has been released by the club, as have a large number of his colleagues at the end of their scholarships. Academy football can seem a harsh business.
Head coach Mason McClelland retained a 4-4-2 set-up with Yori Griffith making a surprise appearance in the frontline: Tom Wright; Billy Clarke (s – Wahab Ojetero 87m), Iestyn Jones, Carter Heywood, Callum Deacon (captain); Bobo Evans (s – Bobby Lewis 71m), Harlan Perry, Milo Robinson, Caio Ifans (s – Callum Jones 61m); Alex Godfrey (s – Kaven Bloniarczyk 71m), Yori Griffith (s – Harvey Gray 61m)
No Tom Woodward today, as he was with the U21s. Josh Pescatore is out for the rest of the season with a broken toe.
The 2 teams are in midtable and looked well matched for much of today’s game. Bournemouth started with a couple of early efforts. The visitors’ centre forward was proving a handful even for the normally assured Iestyn Jones.
We took the lead on 13 minutes with our first real foray into the Bournemouth area, Alex Godfrey laying an accurate pass onto Yori Griffith, who stroked a first time shot into the corner of the Bournemouth net. Clever footwork by Godfrey almost freed up Caio Ifans on goal a few minutes later.
Bournemouth got a 32nd minute equaliser with an instant shot from the edge of our area after we failed to clear out lines from a break and centre down the left.
For the remainder of the half, Bournemouth looked sharper. Tom Wright saved twice in quick succession from the Cherries’ number 10. We had a brief spell of pressure at the end of the half, with Iestyn Jones heading a Perry centre back across goal, the half ending with honours even.
Bournemouth took what seemed an unusual step of replacing their centre forward at half-time.
Shortly after the interval, there was a 5 minute holdup when Yori Griffith went down following a clash of heads. Bournemouth immediately had a goal disallowed for offside on resumption and the number 4 hit the Swans post with a lofted cross straight after.
McClelland elected to shake things up a minute after the hour by introducing Callum Jones and Harvey Gray in straight swops for Caio Ifans and Yori Griffith. The rain kept coming and at this point possibly got even worse…
Bournemouth still looked threatening and went ahead 5 minutes later, we went to sleep at the back and a low cross from the right was poked home at the far post. As has often been the case this season, Callum Jones immediately conjured up some room on the left, playing in Godfrey whose close range shot was parried directly into the path of Billy Clarke to make it 2-2.
Further changes were made by the Swans and some positional rearrangements saw Billy Clarke pushed up to the right side of midfield. The sides continued to battle for ascendancy in difficult conditions. Bournemouth blasted over from a good position, the striker concerned got himself booked for pulling and within seconds redeemed himself by scoring his 2nd of the game with a clean header from yet another effective centre from the right – putting Bournemouth 3-2 up with 10 minutes of normal time to go.
Although we were looking leggy and vulnerable, Callum Jones continued to provide a compelling threat, floating a curled shot that was deflected wide. The resulting corner from Callum Deacon went deep to Iestyn Jones, whose header back fell perfectly for another of our U16s starlets, Bobby Lewis, to smash the ball into the roof of the net from point blank range.
Even then it clearly wasn’t over: Bournemouth made and missed a number of presentable chances in the time remaining to recover their lead. Goalkeeper Tom Wright made a particularly good save from the Cherries’ overlapping right back.
As we entered added time, our youngsters managed to get the ball out of the danger zone and to Callum Jones, now operating on the right hand side. Despite being outnumbered by 3 defenders, he somehow managed to dribble and drag the ball clear into the area and lay off a pass for an unmarked Harvey Gray to finish clinically. An amazing end to a highly entertaining contest.
Callum Jones will of course rightly take the full credit for creating 3 of the goals that kept the Swans in contention and ultimately grabbed the 3 points. Admirable performances also from a number of playing colleagues, notably Tom Wright, Billy Clarke and Alex Godfrey.
Bournemouth might have felt rather mystified and hard done by that they left with nothing.
A word too for today’s referee, who managed the game well, explained his decisions and avoided resorting to routine bookings to make his point, allowing a competitive game to flow freely.
Have a browse of the match gallery from the Swans v Bournemouth Under 18 game and you can see just how wet it was!