Happy New Year! Second leg of the JPL Cup/Shield play-offs. Aggregate and overall score in brackets.
WBA Colts (1) 2 (5) v (6) 0 AFC Rushden & Diamonds U12s
Played at the Tally Ho Sports Centre, Birmingham
Played in very windy conditions. WBA dominated the 1st period but Diamonds kept them at buy with some resolute defending, that continued throughout the match. WBA took the lead through some neat football in the 2nd period; adding a second in the 3rd period. Diamonds’ Jones capitalised on a defensive error and made it 1-2 towards the end of the 3rd period; holding fast throughout the final period for a 6-5 aggregate win. Josh White in the Diamonds goal played very well.
JPL match report can be found here
AFC Rushden & Diamonds U13s 0 (6) v (7) 2 Histon F.C. U13s
Played at the Malcolm Arnold Academy, Northampton
JPL match report can be found here
Histon F.C. U14s 2 (6) v (9) 7 AFC Rushden & Diamonds U14s
Played at the Hinchingbrooke School, Huntingdon
Diamonds took the early lead through Knights in the 1st period, quickly added to by Barrett with two goals in the 2nd period. Barrett got his hat-trick in the 3rd period with Bricknell snatching his first. Diamonds had dominated to this point and had turned around a 2-4 deficit into a 7-4 lead by the end of the 3rd period. The goals were shared at 2-a-piece in the final period to enable Diamonds to run out 9-6 winners.
JPL match report can be found here
St.Neots F.C. U15s (2) v (0) AFC Rushden & Diamonds U15s
Match was postponed.
Coventry F.C. U16s 1 (1) v (4) 1 AFC Rushden & Diamonds U16s
Played at the Central Ajax F.C, Warwick
On a very wet & windy day, Coventry got off to a flyer and took an early lead to grab a goal back. They continued to press but Diamonds defended well. The 2nd quarter was very even between the two sides, but Diamonds restored their lead back to 3 goals by levelling the game in the 3rd quarter at 1-1 through Onuh. Due to the tough conditions the game petered out in the final period
JPL match report can be found here
