Young Shrimpers hold table-topping Seagulls

Last updated : 05 December 2011 By shrimperstrust

Head of Youth Ricky Duncan had earlier complemented his opposite number at the south coast club, Martin Hinshelwood, by ranking the Seagulls amongst the strongest sides in the Youth Alliance, but during the week he managed to construct a game-plan which first restricted Albion’s opportunities and then saw the visitors dominate the second half to stretch their unbeaten run to four League matches.

“I was very pleased with the way we played today,” said Duncan after the encounter. “We knew that we were up against a strong side, but we also knew that we could pressurise them at the back, and once we started to do that, I thought we were comfortably the better team for the last 75 minutes of the match.”

The opening quarter-of-an-hour unquestionably belonged to the home side. Blues’ left-back, Robert Hyams, came off worse in a challenge with Jack MacFarlane in the fifth minute but, having received treatment, he managed to sweep the ball out of play four minutes later as Shamir Goodwin narrowly failed to convert Jacob Peake’s centre.

Unfortunately, the clearance was only a temporary reprieve as Brighton took the lead from the resultant corner. Doug Tuck sent the ball into the six-yard box and Luke Chambers was beaten to the ball by Ryan Cooper, who managed to direct his header into the net.

Hyams was replaced after 16 minutes by Jack Edwards, and the midfielder wasted no time in testing home custodian Josh James. The ‘keeper had sent a poor goal-kick straight to the first-year scholar, but he redeemed himself by flinging himself to his left to palm away Edwards’ strong shot.

At this stage, the hosts remained a threat on the counter-attack, and Goodwin raced clear of the Shrimpers’ defence, only to find the advancing Chambers in place to block his shot. Chambers then sped out of his penalty area to steal the ball off Goodwin’s toes midway through the first half, with Tom Vickers lacking the necessary poise to chip into the exposed goal from 35 yards.

“Matches involving the two clubs have often seen one side run away with it after going in front, but that didn’t happen today,” declared Duncan. “We bounced back from conceding the first goal well and, the longer the match went on, the better we looked.”

After 32 minutes, Southend were very nearly level as Marlon Agyakwa’s inswinging corner from the left flank caught out James and the shotstopper was indebted to MacFarlane on the line heading clear. Thereafter, although Goodwin crashed a snapshot narrowly wide after good build-up play from MacFarlane and Chris Cummings-Bart, Blues slowly began to turn up the pressure.

Brighton’s slow and deliberate play from the back was seized upon, and increased pressing eventually saw Agyakwa pounce on the ball and feed Shamir Mullings. He moved it on to Jack Payne, but James came off his line quickly to thwart the playmaker. Then, three minutes before the break, Mullings worked hard to rob Peake of possession before shooting straight at James from distance.

It seemed as though the Shrimpers’ first half endeavours might not be rewarded but, in the second minute of injury time, they deservedly levelled. Jack Paxman darted into the centre of the pitch after receiving the ball from Mullings and, although his shot was charged down, the ball fell kindly into the path of Michael Hyland, who composed himself before classily bending a 15-yard effort past the ‘keeper.

That gave Southend a platform, and Payne swiftly tested James from the edge of the penalty area four minutes after the restart with a rasping shot that required a strong save. Then, in the 56th minute, Hyland teed up Mullings, who chose to launch a piledriver narrowly off target instead of advancing into space 25 yards out.

Further chances arrived midway through the half, Payne searching out Agyakwa on the right before finding that Cooper had timed his tackle to perfection as he went to receive the winger’s centre. From Pinnock’s corner, Anthony Furlonge stretched to nod over.

A rare break saw Peake and Tuck combine to set up a midfielder for a flashing shot wide at the other end, but Blues were unfortunate at the other end when Paxman’s mazy run took him past two defenders before the omnipresent Cooper slid in to deny the midfielder a shot on goal.

With a little under 20 minutes remaining, Mullings raced onto Michael Hassini’s raking pass, beating James to the ball in the process, but he couldn’t direct his header on target, and Pinnock - who had switched to left-back to cover Hyams’ absence - was next to be frustrated, curling a free-kick around the wall but failing to beat James.

Even in stoppage time, Edwards battled hard to win the ball in midfield with a committed challenge and released Mullings on the right wing. Payne made up plenty of ground in an attempt to connect with the forward’s cross, but James managed to dive on the ball just inches in front of him to maintain a share of the points for the hosts.

“I thought we mixed our passing up well today; sometimes we went short, sometimes we went through the middle and, at times, we hit the ball long, but we chose the right options, and that pleased me. We now have one more match before Christmas, at Dagenham & Redbridge next week; it will be tough, but if we can win there, that would put us right up there in the League going into 2012,” Duncan concluded.

Southend United U18s: Luke Chambers, Anthony Furlonge, Robert Hyams (Jack Edwards 16), Michael Hyland, Aaron Tatham, Michael Hassini, Jack Paxman, Shamir Mullings, Jack Payne, Mitchell Pinnock, Marlon Agyakwa.

Substitutes not used: Harry Jeffrey, Kamal Creary.

Goal: Hyland (45+2).

Cautioned: Hassini (45+3 - foul tackle), Furlonge (80 - foul tackle), Agyakwa (90+2 - delaying the restart of play).

Thanks to the Shrimpers Trust website for the reprinting of these reports, for the Trust's own youth section: www.shrimperstrust.co.uk