Southern Youth League
| Horsham YMCA 3 Peacock x 3 |
Crawley Town 1 |
Date:27th August 2003 Location:Gorings Mead
Source Martin Mitchell
YM U18s maintained their unbeaten start to the season with a Peter Peacock hat trick defeating neighbours Crawley Town 3-1
The scoreline was a bit flattering to YM because most of the game was spent camped inside the YM half but Crawley could not convert their possession into goals due to some resolute defending and excellent keeping from (Man of the Match) Ken Westoby.
Crawley were a constant threat to the defence of YM, causing much havoc against the fullback of YM Aaron Reeves (ex-Chesworth).
In the space of the first five minutes, Crawley tested Westoby, the YM goalkeeper twice, forcing him into fine saves. Slowly YM came into the game more and caught Crawley on the counter attack to take the lead with only fifteen minutes played. Plumridge turned his marker and fired in a fierce drive which Town’s keeper could only parry straight into the path of Peacock who smashed home from 6yards out. Peacock quickly added a second within minutes when he capitalized on the keeper’s mistake, lobbing the ball calmly over the keeper to give YM a 2-0 cushion. To round off a bizarre five minutes Peacock grabbed his hat trick after some neat interchanges on the left hand side of the pitch resulting in a pinpoint pass from Greg Brabon splitting Town’s defence wide open for Peacock to run onto and drill home from 12 yards out.
The second half was all about character as YM had to dig in as Town bombarded YM’s defence time after time only to see Westoby pull off a string of top class saves and with the aid of his defence frustrate town’s front men.
Crawley got the break through they were looking for and probably deserved with only 15 minutes gone in the second half.
A dubious penalty was given when Greg Brabon shouldered Town’s player off the ball in YM’s box, cries from the away supports seemed to influence the referee into giving the spot kick which Town converted.
Crawley piled on the pressure prodding and probing as they tried to find a chink in YM’s armour, on occasions when they did break through Westoby was on hand to foil Town’s forwards.
An excellent team performance, which showed Great Spirit and determination when for long periods of the game YM, could not get hold of the ball.