REGIS 2000 1 HORSHAM 3

HORSHAM U16s:
Dominic Burchell, Joseph Giacomelli, Ben Mulcahy, Anthony Dumbrill, Sam Lee, Matthew Rance, Adam Hutchings, Jordan Ruff, Patrick O'Sullivan, Darren James, Alexander Green, George Magnus, Marcus Southon
Scorers: Magnus, O'Sullivan (2)

Horsham Under 16’s ended 2007 with their 100% record intact at a cold and windy Bognor on Sunday. In a hard fought match, in which neither team seemed to be able to find any fluency, Horsham dominated for much of the game but were unable to make the domination count with goals.

Horsham opened the scoring on twenty minutes when George Magnus, once again, found the back of the net after a terrific run down the wing from an ever busy Adam Goddard which resulted in a cross that left the Regis defence thinking that the ball had gone out of play and the momentary pause allowed Magnus to roll the ball, unchallenged, into the Regis goal. Two minutes later saw Regis bring the scores level, after a goal mouth scramble with what was to be their one and only shot on target throughout the whole game.

It wasn’t, however, until the second half that the Hornets were once again able to convert domination into goals. With the second half barely under way, a delightful through ball from Alexander Green allowed Patrick O’Sullivan to take aim without breaking stride and deftly roll the ball under a despairing keeper to restore the lead. Six minutes later, the combination of Green and O’Sullivan proved fruitful again when Green whipped one of his trademark corners in from the right and O’Sullivan rose high above everyone to power the ball home for Horsham’s third, and his second, of the game.

Despite several changes throughout the second forty minutes, Horsham were unable to take further advantage of their possessional advantage on what was a difficult surface to play their usual high standard of total football.

Three points gained, and a 100% record intact, job done and another year over. Sometimes you just have to grind out a result and this was one of those occasions, playing a ten man defensive team who would have been happy with a point. But, when all said and done, Horsham’s quality shone through.