Kilgetty AFC

Kilgetty’s little Brazilians won a hard fought game over Hundleton on Saturday, but the real winner was football.

Encouraged to ‘go in hard’, and goaded from the sidelines by misguided parents, the Hundleton players did just that.  It was sad to see, but from the moment the match started, until its end, our little fellas were subject to a series of wild challenges, which the referee chose to ignore.

Praise must go to the Kilgetty players, who refused to be bullied, but also didn’t retaliate.  John Mansbridge, taking the armband for the first time, lead the team admirably by example.  Showing great skill with the ball, and leadership on the field.

Zac especially recieved a greater part of the rough challenges, but he just picked himself up and got on with the game, and was soon rewarded when he ran through on goal.  His fist shot was saved, but Zac followed in his shot and buried the rebound.

Five minutes later, Hundleton equalised with a well worked indiviual goal.  The left-footed striker managed to get past Jack Rees at the back, and shot back across goal with the outside of his left boot to beat Dazy at the far post.

With the scores level at half-time, Ollie Gamble, who had been injured in the pre-match warm up, decided that his injury may not be so serious, and came on in place of Ben Harris, who had performed bravely in the centre of midfield.

Ollie was instructed to sit in front of the defence, and ensure that we didn’t concede again.  A task that he stuck to, and even when he pushed up and joined the attack he still made some great recovery runs to stiffle any counter attack.

The outstanding performance of another Oliver, Oliver Griffin is a measure of how far this young fella has come as a player.  Griffin has always been one of the more skilfull players on the team, but now he has also added strength and determination to his game.  Playing a narrower formation this time, this winger was more than prepared to come inside and face some tough challenges, but he rode every one of them, and more times than not, appeared with the ball coming out the other end.

Half-way through the second half, Ollie Gamble fizzed a shot towards the back post, which Oliver Wheeler managed to deflect into the back of the goal.  No more than Wheeler deserved, for his tireless work down the left flank.

2-1 up, and the Hundleton support again demanded more thuggery.  With Zac shielding the ball on the touchline, one Hundleton parent, just ten yards away screamed ‘take him out!’, and so the defender duly obliged, and kicked Zac in the back of his ankles. Take him out? What are they teaching these kids?

Thankfully, Kilgetty let their football do the talking.  Moments later, Kilgetty forced a corner, and Ollie placed the ball perfectly for the captain to head home.  3 - 1 and the game was effectively over.  Tom Mansbridge came on for the last few minutes in place of Jack Rees, who along with Ryan Scourfield had put in a really solid performance that ensured no goals were conceded in the second half.  Praise must also go to Dazy Lloyd for her brave and bold attitude between the sticks - the girl in green, Kilgetty’s no.1 .