Westmorland Football - County U18s do double (From The Westmorland Gazette)

Westmorland Football - County U18s do double

12:59pm Saturday 29th November 2008 in

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WESTMORLAND Under-18s repeated their FA Youth Cup win over their Cumberland counterparts and claimed the double over their Cumbria rivals with a 3-0 win in the Northern Counties Youth Competition match at Penrith.

Cumberland had the best of the early exchanges of the game while Westmorland had to wait until the 18th minute for their first effort on goal 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 go just 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 shooting wide from a good position. However, Westmorland took the 1-0 scoreline into the half time interval. The Westmorland defence did brilliantly to keep the Cumberland attack at arms length and restricted the home side to very few chances.

Davidson was unlucky not to increase the visitor's lead when he narrowly missed out on finishing from a goal keeping fumble but on 62 minutes he found the net. After creating some space the attacker saw his shot well saved, but this time he was on hand to quickly follow up and score on the rebound. As the home team's 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 with Dean Raw seeming his shot well saved.

Three minutes later substitute Greg Pearce's shot was also well saved after Pearce had beaten two men on the edge of the penalty area.

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 were also very pleased with the way the team kept their discipline. 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.

* LEAGUE newcomers Alston Moor SC were an unknown quantity for Appleby in the Westmorland Sportsguard Senior Cup on Saturday, but 'Jock' Nugent's side overcame the potential banana-skin with a comfortable 4-0 victory.

"We did a professional job in the first half to go 4-0 and the game was over as a contest afterwards, " said Nugent.

First Division Appleby terrorised Alston, top of the Fourth Division on their debut season in the league, with a stream of crosses into the box and they were two goals to the good after 12 minutes.

A three-pass move led to the first goal as David Nugent found Richard Faustino and he crossed for Thomas Armstrong to touch into the ball at the far post.

There was a hint of offside about Appleby's second goal, but the Alston linesman never raised his flag after Shane Kay got in behind the defence to head home Armstrong's cross.

Armstrong supplied Appleby's third goal when he converted another cross and it was 4-0 after Alston failed to clear their lines and Faustino stepped in to rifle a shot into the top corner.

Alston made a switch at centre-back which meant they were more effective in the second half and although Appleby had plenty of pressure, they could not go on to score any more goals, the keeper making two wonder-saves from John Coward to deny them.

Appleby Reserves consolidated their position at the top of Division 3 with a 2-1 victory over Burneside Reserves with goals from Andrew Little and Chris Forster.

Third Division side Endmoor KGR were too strong for Staveley United Reserves from the Fourth Division when winning 8-2 in the Westmorland Sportsguard Senior Cup.

Liam Jackson put Endmoor ahead, but Staveley equalised to turn round 1-1 at half time.

The second half belonged to Endmoor after they scored two early goals through Dean Leigh and Shane Lambert to go 3-1 up.

Although Staveley scored again they conceded futher goals from Shane Dixon and another three from on-song striker Leigh, giving him a personal tally of four for the afternoon.

Carvetii United are leading the chase to catch Wetheriggs United in Division 1 and confirmed their wellbeing with an 8-2 victory in the derby clash at Lunesdale United.

Striker Andy Lockhart racked up a four-timer against his former club and there were other goals from Simon Parkin, Shaun Gardner (2) and Dan Robinson.

Penrith United players Robinson and Willie Paul became available after their first-call club played on Friday night to boost Carvetii's squad.

It seemed there was a goal every five minutes in the first half as Carvetii went 2-0 only for Lunesdale to level the scores. Carvetii led 4-2 at the break and the next goal was crucial. After Lunesdale were unlucky, Carvetii went to the other end and scored to make it 5-2 and never looked back afterwards.

"We are going well with a settled squad and have some very good players in the side at present, "said Carvetii boss Malcolm Metcalfe.

Kendal County's 4-2 defeat against Keswick started promisingly enough with Mathew Wooff drilling home at the back post inside 10 minutes.

The early goal prompted end-to-end football and Keswick drew level as a long cross found a unmarked striker who fired his side level. The game took another turn on 27 minutes when good work by Wooff on the left set up County's top scorer Steve Robinson to make it 2-1.

The second half was only two minutes old when Keswick drew level, a shot cut-back ball from a wide player left his team-mate with a simple tap-in to equalise once again.

An incident involving County's young Curtis Nicholson saw the County team loose focus on the task at hand and on the 75th minute. Keswick broke quickly from midfield, setting up their striker who finshed well to make it a 3-2 scoreline. A late break away goal saw Keswick claim a 4-2 win .

* The Westmorland FA launched its New and Young Referees Group last week at the County headquarters.

Members of the group will receive In-Service training on a monthly basis with theory sessions held at the County FA office and fitness/practical sessions at Kirkbie Kendal School.

Quality Referees and FA Instructors from all the north of England will provide up to date training for the group. The group will also attend a Unibond League game as a training night and have the opportunity to discuss the game with him afterwards.

The launch of this group will ensure that new and young referees in the county are provided with guidance and support to further their refereeing careers.

Wattsfield Youth FC, a local FA Charter Standard Club have become one of England's first 'deaf friendly' football clubs by signing up to the NDCS Deaf Friendly Football Club Pledge. By signing the pledge recently launched by the National Deaf Children’s Society (NDCS), the Club has committed to opening up the sport to deaf people.