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Sunday 28th October 2018 (9.30am)
Brooklands, Bury Old Road, Prestwich, Manchester M25 0EG
Referee: Jude Hugill
Lost: 5-1 (HT 3-1)
Goals: Alfie Rostron
MotM: Alfie Rostron
The newly promoted Hurricanes were playing in their final ‘Yellow’ Division 3 league game before taking on teams from the league above in this season’s Challenge Cup competition and, for the second consecutive game, faced a team from Manchester Maccabi. This time, it was an early kick off away against the Wolves (rather than at home against the Eagles) and it proved to be a far sterner challenge.
The Beechfield boys had competed in a ferocious Halloween tournament on Friday evening, and some of the players were clearly still feeling the effects (and sporting the bruises?!) from their encounters. In addition, because of the unusual Sunday morning kick off, the Hurricanes were missing outfield players for the first time this season, with Henry Errington and Dillan Caldwell both unavailable.
This was the team’s first visit to Manchester Maccabi and the pitch that the game was being played on was by far the biggest that the Hurricanes had played on, and they started the first half playing uphill, against a stiff breeze. With everything seemingly stacked against them, it was no surprise that the game did not start well for the away side.
The opening exchanges were fairly even although the home team were clearly far more comfortable with their surroundings, as their long-ball game and counter-attacking style was far more suited to the huge playing area, and soon had Beechfield on the back-foot. It wasn’t long before one of the home players dribbled his way into the area, past a number of Hurricanes defenders, and fired home their opening goal.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t long before they added a second, as a shot from the edge of the box found its way into the bottom corner, and it could’ve been worse for Beechfield but for some important blocks by Joshua Whitehead, Oliver Hall and goalkeeper Oliver Dalton-Bunker, who was certainly having his busiest game of the season so far.
However, just as the Wolves were beginning to dominate, a great clearance out of defence from Fabio Figueiredo found Alfie Rostron wide on the left wing. Alfie charged down the line, beat the defender to get into the box, dummied his way around the keeper and calmly rolled the ball into the back of the net. This was Alfie’s seventeenth goal of the season, having scored in all seven games this season so far. His goal gave the Hurricanes a real lift and Daniel Robinson and Oliver Williams both had good chances saved which could’ve seen the away team draw level.
As half time approached, a Wolves’ counter-attack led to corner which the Hurricanes struggled to clear, and a Maccabi midfielder curled the ball into the top corner to give the home team a 3-1 lead that they probably deserved. The customary half time snacks and wise words from manager Ben Robinson helped to raise the boys’ spirits over the break, although they missed the input of assistant manager Glenn Whitehead who had kindly offered to coach the Beechfield U10s Lightning squad, who were without a manager for their game.
The Hurricanes were certainly more competitive in the second half and, playing downhill and with the wind at their backs, managed to create a number of chances. Amaan Khan made some strong runs through the middle, Oliver Williams battled hard down the left and Jamie Maher whipped a number of dangerous crossed from the right. However, despite a number of efforts from Daniel Robinson and man of the match Alfie Rostron, they were unable to add to their tally, partly due to the largest under-10 player in the world blocking a number of their shots with his gigantic frame?!
As the Hurricanes pushed further forward in search of a goal to get them back into the game, they left themselves exposed at the back and a loose pass out of defence led to a fourth goal for the home team. This effectively ended the game as a contest as, as the visiting team began to run out of steam, the game became a little scrappy. As the game drew to a close, after the ball rattled around the area like a game of pinball, there was just time for the home side to force home a fifth goal to condemn the Hurricanes to their first defeat of the season.
After the match Hurricanes’ manager Ben Robinson said “Not taking anything away from Maccabi, I thought they played well, and we just looked tired and were missing something today. I could make excuses and say it’s because we worked really hard on Friday, that we were missing two key players, or that my sidekick was not beside me today. However, at the end of the day, we've had such a good run so far and we have to lose at some point, as hard as that is to take. Maybe this is a good thing and will spur us on, as the games from here on are not going to get any easier. On a good note we did have chances to narrow the gap and make a better game of it but just couldn't find the back of the net. So, on to Tuesday, when we will re-group and work a lot harder”.
The Hurricanes squad for the match was: Oliver Dalton-Bunker, Fabio Figueiredo, Alfie Rostron, Amaan Khan, Oliver Williams, Oliver Hall, Jamie Maher, Daniel Robinson and Joshua Whitehead.