Development Squad defeated in final cup group match

Barton Town Development	0-2	Cleethorpes Town U18
		Pickett Telford

Report by Simon Burnett

The Dev squad welcomed Cleethorpes U18 to New Holland for our final group game of the Andrew Bandelow Memorial Cup Group stage which is a mini league format. We had already qualified by virtue of winning our first 3 games. That said we wanted to top the group and to guarantee that we we need at least a draw, whereas Clee still had this and one game to play so haven’t qualified yet.

Our squad was depleted due to injuries and suspensions but it was a good opportunity for those fit to show what they could do.

Oscar Kuehn

Jake Croft

Max Brandrick (c)

Jimmy Hiley

Louie Rodgers

Jake Forman

Jamahl Palfreyman

Rio Drury

Seb Parker

Cole Salter

David Finley

Seb Burnett

Ethan Hewitt

Will Osgar-Wardley

The game started quick and Clee seemed to be stringing passes together better than us and were on top in first 15 mins when a speculative shot from outside the box found its way under Kuehn’s dive to take Clee ahead.

The game was pretty scrappy for the rest of the first half with Barton trying to play out from the back and finding it difficult. Salter was getting in good positions down the right hand side and when we started to find him we got some joy but nothing concrete.

Clee wanted it more in the middle of the park though as the lads looked sluggish. Another error by Barton gifted Clee a second with sloppy play at the back. The lads were trying to play football but the passing wasn’t accurate enough and they capitalised.

The game was reasonably tight but Clee probably deserving the lead by virtue of taking chances albeit ones we gifted them.

Second half was another scrappy one but much more even with very few chances created by either side and most of the game played in the middle third. Nether team played particularly well but Clee needing the win to keep qualification alive showed as the just wanted it that little bit more.

Back to the Easy Buy next week for a league game which is where our main focus is as we look to continue our unbeaten league campaign.