Cinderford Town Under 9s played their second league game of the season at home to Leonard Stanley Sharks and put in another impressive performance to maintain their 100% start to the season and keep another clean sheet.
With James Burford and goalkeeper Jaydn Burge missing the side were forced into the game with a bare 7 and a few positional changes with Callum Phillips returning to goal in the first half and Ethan Kwok starting his first game for the Under 9s in midfield.
Cinderford started brightly and took the lead when Liam Wilkins hit a powerful drive from a tight angle to beat the Leonard Stanley keeper and he soon doubled his tally shortly afterwards with another long shot which slipped underneath the keeper.
With a two goal cushion Cinderford began to control the possession and played some excellent football, passing the ball around and looking dangerous with every attack. Charlie Taylor and Ryley Cocker were extremely solid at the back not giving Leonard Stanley a sniff and some of their passing out from the back was superb. It wasn’t long before Jack Cook got his first goal of the day and that was followed by Liam Wilkins completing his second hat trick in two games. The final goal of the half was probably the best after some great pass and move football Charlie Taylor’s broke down the right and after his initial shot was blocked he lifted his head and picked a peach of a pass across the box for Joel Morse to score.
Jack Cook went in goal for Cinderford in the second half but that didn’t disrupt the team display with Callum Phillips slotting into the defence and looking equally good defending as he did moving forward with the ball. The goals continued to flow with Liam Wilkins adding his 4th of the game, Joel Morse converting his second from the penalty spot and then Charlie Taylor finishing off another incisive attack. Shortly afterwards Joel completed an impressive hattrick.
With 10 minutes to go Charlie Taylor swapped with Jack Cook in goal and it didn’t take long until Jack got his second of the game with a typical long range thunderbolt. A few heavy challenges started to go in on a couple of Cinderford players and the concentration started to drop with a few towards the end of the game but still a few chances were created with Ryley Cocker unlucky with a close range shot before Joel Morse picked up his 4th goal and Cinderford’s final goal of the game.
Charlie performed superbly in defence, Ethan was solid in midfield on his first start and the finishing and attacking play from both Liam Wilkins and Joel Morse was great to watch at times, but man of the match went to Ryley Cocker who controlled the defence superbly throughout the game and at points his passing out from the back was exceptional.
Next up is Ashelworth Woodpeckers at home on October 5th.
