Dominant Development Squad blow Horncastle away
13th March 2023| Barton Town Development | 5-0 | Horncastle Town U18 |
| Rigo 5 Burnett 20, 37 Finley 45 Parker 55 |
Report by Simon Burnett
We hosted Horncastle Under 18’s at Baysgarth for our seventh league game of the season aiming to maintain our unbeaten league campaign. Horncastle are sat in third behind us only on goal difference, although we have 2 games in hand.
They had led the league in the early stages so expected a good test but we wanted to put daylight between us and them at the half way point of our season.
| Pos | Player |
| GK | Oscar Kuehn |
| DEF | Jake Croft |
| DEF | Max Brandrick (c) 🟡 |
| DEF | Jimmy Hiley |
| DEF | Jamahl Palfreyman |
| MID | Cole Salter |
| MID | Jake Forman 🟡 |
| MID | Alfie Rigo âš½ |
| MID | David Finley âš½ |
| ATT | Seb Burnett ⚽⚽ |
| ATT | Seb Parker âš½ |
| SUB | Ben Curtis |
| SUB | Rio Drury |
| SUB | Ethan Hewitt 🟡 |
| SUB | Will Osgar-Wardley |
| SUB | Billy Peck |
Pre-match we talked about starting quick in possession and after the first five we did just that, spreading the ball well when Jamahl Palfreyman picked the ball up just inside the opposition half. He moved forward and floated a perfect pass into the box for Alfie Rigo to glance a faint header into the corner of the net for a great start for the Swans.
Horncastle tried to get back into it but the Swans defence was resolute and the game opened up slightly which suited us. Jimmy Hiley limped off after playing with a knock that wouldn’t hold out and was replaced by Billy Peck who was returning from illness, before which he had been in great form. He settled in quickly no issues.
There were chances at both ends but ours were more frequent and after 20 minutes Parker broke into the box and struck the bar and the ball spun into the air. Seb Burnett rose well to head in the rebound for 2-0. We had a real grip on the game and continued to frustrate our opponents.
Approaching the 40 minute mark Finley took the ball into the box and danced his way around 2 or 3 defenders before seeing Burnett in space in front of goal he dragged it into his path and Burnett clipped it home from close range for his second. It was Finley’s turn next just before half time another Parker shot rebounded, this time from the keeper and Finley judged the parry well and slammed it home for 4-0 and put the Swans in cruise control heading into the break. Easy half time team talk, more of the same lads please.
We knew Horncastle would come back second half to try and save something but we kept control despite a few chances for them that were dealt with by Palfreyman and Max Brandrick down the middle and Peck and Jake Croft down the flanks. Oscar Kuehn made a couple of critical one on one saves to keep his clean sheet for the day and still having never conceded in the league this season.
Ten minutes in Salter broke through and forced a ball into the danger area where Parker locked into a tackle with a defender and from the ground managed to scoop the loose ball into the net from 12 yards for 5-0. Drury came on for Parker at this point and put in a really good display in midfield drawing various fouls and linking up well with Forman, Rigo and Salter in midfield who had all bossed the middle and had really good games again.
Forman, Salter and Brandrick made way for Hewitt, Curtis and Osgar for some well earned minutes after good spells last week too. The lads saw the game out in full control taking all three points and move within two points of the leaders Northgate with three games in hand at the halfway mark for us. A really good disciplined performance again in the league.
