Town U21s 2-1 Frickley

Following on from an impressive performance the previous week against then league leaders Tadcaster Albion i2i (Black), Town hosted a Frickley side who had won two of their opening six fixtures.

Town started brightly from the first whistle and were on the front foot immediately, it didn’t take long before they were in front.

After some great work down the right hand side, Dave Lawn put in a teasing cross that was met on the volley by the on-rushing Charlie Anderson to give the home side an early lead.

For the remainder of the half Town dominated possession but squandered numerous opportunities to put the game to bed early.

This combined with some impressive goalkeeping by Lewis Bowring in the Frickley net meant the young Town lads headed to the interval with just a solitary goal for their fine efforts in the first 45.

The second half started as the first half finished with Town seeing a lot of the ball, especially Ben Barker and the hard-working Lewis Thornton in midfield.

Again the forward line failed to capitalise on the chances created and the game still hung in the balance, despite all of Town’s dominance.

While Town pressed for a second, Frickley didn’t create many clear cut openings themselves, but when they did manage to muster the occasional counter attack they were met with stern defence in the shape of centre backs Cam Latimer and Luke Stuart along with a pair of equally impressive 16 year old full backs in Alex Hields and Harry Lee.

Town finally got their second goal on 81 minutes when second half substitute Tom Johnson was on the spot for a neat finish past the advancing keeper after more heavy pressure down the visitors right hand side.

As the game seemed to be heading for a comfortable Town win, a speculative shot from 35 yards by Frickley’s top scorer Paul Sherburn sneaked into the near post of Jordan Myers goal which had been untroubled most of the evening, setting up a nervy last few minutes especially for those that remember the reverse fixture earlier in the season.

In the end, the young Town side held on for their first win of the season despite a last minute corner which saw the visiting keeper venturing forward looking to spoil the night for the 21s.

Next week sees the 21s final home game of the year as they take on Yorkshire Amateur at the CNG before a tough looking fixture away at high-flying Farsley Celtic to round off December.

Town U21s: Myers, Hields, Lee, Barker, Stuart, Latimer, Lawn, Thornton, Humpries, Anderson, Lambert

Subs: Richardson, Johnson, Gulzar