Association of Northern Counties Youth Competition - Cumberland FA v Westmorland County FA at Southend Road, Penrith on Saturday 22 November 2008
The Under 18’s followed up their success earlier in the season in the FA County Youth Cup, by completing the double over Cumberland by winning 3 – 0 in the regional competition at Penrith.
As early as the 3rd minute the Referee stamped his authority on the game when he cautioned the home sides, Michael Lewis, for kicking the ball away.
The home side had the best of the early exchanges of the game but the first chance fell to the visitors on 18 minutes when Max Shaw found himself unmarked in the penalty area only to stub his shot easily at the Cumberland goalkeeper, Matthew Charters.
On 28 minutes Westmorland’s Nathan McNeil saw his thunderous shot from 30 metres beat the goalkeeper but just went wide of the right hand post.
McNeil was again in the action on 39 minutes when his deflected shot opened the scoring after an outstanding through ball found Dan Davidson on the right and his cross found McNeil.
A couple of minutes later Davidson himself missed an opportunity to increase the lead, but shot wide.
Half-Time: Cumberland FA 0 Westmorland County FA 1
One of Cumberland’s few chances of the game was disallowed early in the second half when Dean Wainwright was clearly offside.
Davidson was unlucky not to increase the visitors lead when he just failed to get on the end after the goalkeeper fumbled the ball on 55 minutes.
Shaw got his second goal on 54 minutes when he tapped home Davidson’s cross from the right.
Westmorland’s Thomas Wright was cautioned on a late tackle on 61 minutes.
Davidson got on the scoresheet himself on 62 minutes when his shot was well saved but he quickly followed up to score from the rebound.
As the home teams tempers frayed Michael Grayson was cautioned on 71 minutes for an awful tackle from behind on McNeil and the game got very physical for a while.
The visitors could easily have scored three more goals in the closing stages of the game when substitute Dean Raw’s shot was well saved. Three minutes later substitute Greg Pearce’s shot was also well saved after beating two men on the edge of the penalty area.
The same beat the offside trap a minute later, passed to Graham Baker whose shot was again well saved.
Coaches Mike Graham and Dave Pearce were delighted with the team’s performance having dominated the whole of the second half and but for an outstanding performance by the home keeper the score line could have been much higher. They also very pleased with the way the team kept their discipline.
Full-Time: Cumberland FA 0 Westmorland County FA 3
Teams
Cumberland FA
Matthew Charters, Dion Barnes, Michael Grayson, Liam Jackson (captain), Ray Sempill, Callum Lee, Michael Lewis, Aaron Roberts, Dean Wainwright, Scott McCrae and Chris Graves
Subs: Stephen Scott, Karl Hartley, Danny Black and Dave Pearson
Westmorland County FA
Stuart Dixon, Thomas Wright, Sam Cooper, Graham Baker (captain), Rob MacKenzie, Drew Lowe, Dan Davidson, Nathan McNeil, Max Shaw, Nathan Dixon and James Benjamin
Subs: Dean Raw, Greg Pearce and Laurence Stannard
Referee: Allan Bennett
Assistant Referees: Nigel D’Arcy and Graeme Jones