11th January 2012 Bognor 1 Whitehawk 7
BRTFC U18's hosted Whitehawk for their return league fixture at Nyewood Lane, after nearly 6 weeks without a game.
The young Rocks were again struggling for a full strength squad with regular centre back Jack Skeites now sidelined for the rest of the season with a groin injury and regular left back Rob Berryman out for at least 9 months after ACL reconstruction surgery just before Christmas.
Fellow centre back/full back Wes Robinson has been diagnosed with a stress fracture in his spine and will be out for 6 months.
That left recent signing 15-year-old Regan Miles to play left back. Curtis Poole, also 15, moved across to cover centre back with Connor Cody and George Bunch in his regular right back position. Cover on the bench was provided by Rory Walsh who is also returning from injury and new signing Corey Heath who put pen to paper on the night after only one training session with the squad.
Bognor put out an attacking line up playing a 4-3-3 formation with Adam Richards playing as the central striker with support from Ollie Pearce on the right and Tom Lee-Smith on the left. 15-year-old Joseph Matthews played behind the central striker with Dan Kempson and Jamie Kilhams taking up the central holding midfield roles.
The first five minutes saw Whitehawk playing a very strong front 3 in a central position putting pressure on the centre backs almost immediately.
The Whitehawk strikers were a threat from the start and an early penalty was conceded on 15 minutes when Cody was adjudged to have pulled the shirt of one of the Whitehawk players. On reflection it was probably a penalty but it was 50/50 from both players and the referee went with the attacker.
1-0 to Whitehawk from the penalty.
Almost from the start Bognor pushed for a reply and scored when Richards was put through from the right and slotted low past the Whitehawk keeper levelling the score to 1-1.
Whitehawk again took the lead on 20 minutes after which the game settled down until the last 5 minutes of the first half. Some poor clearances and some weak defending from a free kick saw Whitehawk score 3 goals in 5 minutes to go in 5-1 up at half time.
Bognor regrouped and tried to play their style of attractive football at the start of the second half but again fell foul of some poor communication at the back and conceded on 50 minutes.
Some regrouping of the midfield and a formation change to 4-4-2 settled the game and Bognor had several chances to save some face but could not find an opening. Tyler Hope and Alex Pearce came on for Richards and Kilhams with 20 minutes to go and made an impact but again the young rocks could not find the net.
Miles picked up an ankle injury with 7 minutes to go which allowed new signing Corey Heath to have his first run out at Nyewood Lane in a rather unfamiliar left back role but he settled in quickly and put in a good but brief cameo in defence. Late into injury time Whitehawk scored another but by then the scoreline was irrelevant.
FT 1-7.
This was not the best performance of the Young Rocks' first season in the Ryman Youth League and the inexperience and strength of some of the younger players showed on a night best forgotten. Morale is still strong and at least in that respect the team is playing above its young age.
Another few games and another season will see these younger players develop on and gain confidence and experience to be able to cope with the older, more stronger sides like Whitehawk - who it must be said will be losing the majority of their current squad next season as they will be too old for this league.