Tournament joy for Snaith under 9s football team

Published on 19th June 2008 in Sport

Following on from league success and winning their home home tournament, Snaith Under 9s were invited to play at Garforth Villa's competition last Sunday.

The team confidence was extremely high and this showed in the qualifying rounds as they achieved a 100 per cent record, beating the hosts, Garforth, who were a division above Snaith, 2-0 with goals from George Pryor and William Pleasance.

A 3-1 defeat of Altofts B followed (Melling, Pleasance and Pryor the scorers) before meeting fellow Green League team Sherburn, who they overcame 1-0 with a goal from David Melling.

The semi-final was the hardest game against last season's 100 per cent team, Altofts (A) from the division above Snaith.

This was a very hard-fought, controversial game with plenty of incidents. Snaith went into a 2-0 lead with fabulous strikes from George Pryor and William Pleasance before Altofts pulled one back with five minutes to spare.

Altofts scored an equaliser with a minute to spare, apparently knocking the ball from Snaith's goalkeeping hero Bradley Brown's hands, taking the tie into extra time.

Snaith rallied well and within a minute George Pryor delivered an inch-perfect cross for David Melling to fire home a bullet header past the stranded Altofts keeper. Melling added another a minute later to seal the tie with a fabulous top-corner drive which was unstoppable.

Again, the success of the strike force was based upon magnificent defending from Snaith's man of the tournament Harry Bradshaw, the ever-dependable Sian Selkirk and goalkeeping hero Barad Brown.

Snaith's strikers Danny Campsall, Luke Henderson and William Wattam all were deployed through the game and contributed magnificently. All came close to scoring on several occasions.

Against Monk Fryston in the final, David Melling and George Pryor were unable to play due to injuries picked up in the Altofts game, although Snaith continued to trouble their opponents, this simply wasn't to be their afternoon.

However, coach Andy Melling said: "We are extremely proud of our team and the progress they have made this year, we are very confident of success next season." (19-06-49 SU)