Apr 16, 2016
Ashridge Park Royals U17 9 Sandhurst 0
We find ourselves in our final game of the season on a bitterly cold April morning. How fitting that our final game should be against long-term opponents Sandhurst. The game was switch to St Crispins as no pitch was available at their venue.
The requirement was simple. A victory would seal the runners up position. Our opponents had become something of a bogey team, with us failing to beat them on our 5 previous encounters, including the ludicrous 6-6 draw and the notorious 3-2 defeat in September.
Onto the action. In summary, within 12 minutes, Ashridge had established a 4-0 lead, thanks to James converting Peter’s cross after a short corner, and then top scorer Alex helped himself to a hat-trick with assist for the 2 Ben’s.
Halfway through the first half Ben W set Alex up for his 4th goal of the game, before he was withdrawn for a well-earned breather.
Sandhurst came out strongly in the 2nd half, and attacked with some purpose without really threatening the Ashridge goal.
On the hour, Alex scored his 5th goal after the ball squirmed under the keeper’s body, a persistent Dom made it 7 on 70 minutes, and then on 77 minutes a persistent Sid’s delicate lob after Dom’s through-ball gave the keeper no chance.
On 83 minutes, Luke’s cross was unfortunately deflected off a Sandhurst defender to make it 9-0.
Full credit to Sandhurst for their resilience and good sportsmanship. They did not let the margin of defeat distract or demotivate them in what was clearly a difficult morning.
Congratulations to Ashridge Park Royals on achieiving a 2nd place finish, our