U14 Boys lose to Richmond but much improved

Maidenhead U14 boys played a strong Richmond team at Braywick, having lost the away fixture 6-0.
To come away just 3-0 down, and having pressured for a goal throughout the match showed the team have improved significantly.

Starting strongly the Maidenhead team had a number of chances in the first 5 mins. The midfield of Ollie, Marc, Luke and Max tackled strongly and put pressure on the Richmond opposition. A number of passes were slotted through to Harry and Harvey, making his first appearance for the u14 boys, however were snuffed out by the Richmond defence before any clear shots could be made.
Richmond recovered strongly putting the Maidenhead defence of James, Declan, Cleve and Flynn under pressure, a number of scrambled clearances and excellent keeping from Zac kept the clean sheet until a lucky interception of a clearance left a Richmond player in the open at the top of the D who shot strongly to make it 1-0 after the first quarter.

Second quarter Maidenhead battled hard in the midfield with Max particularly strong in the tackle and Marc doing a brilliant job of pushing attacks and passes through, but then running back half the pitch to help the defence when needed. One break had Luke working well with Ollie to finally manage a pass through to Harry on the charge, dribbling past a number of Richmond players and an advancing keeper the ball banged into the back of the goal only to find the final touch had been outside the D.
0-1 at half time.

3rd quarter and Richmond pressure began to mount as Maidenheads fitness began to be tested. A number of short corners were allowed with only Zac’s excellent keeping stopping more goals. One excellent kicked clearance allowed quick passes through Max and Ollie to put Harvey on goal, finally calling the Richmond keeper into action - turns out he was quite good.
Maidenhead kept the pressure on winning a short corner where Flynn was unlucky not to slot home.
Unfortunately pushing for the equaliser the team were caught on the break once too many times and Richmond were able to make 2-0.

Final quarter turned into huge pressure on the Maidenhead team with a number of goal mouth scrambles and some excellent interceptions and clearances by James, Declan and Cleve. The pressure mounted however and from one short corner Richmond slotted home for 3-0 and the final whistle

Although a loss, it was a much improved performance, and a few luckier breaks and earlier passing might have resulted in a closer scoreline.
Thanks to John Sellwood again for umpiring.