Report

This was a wakeup call that the Academies younger age group had coming and in hindsight perhaps need. They found themselves up against a very organised Guthlaxton side that they had already beat earlier on in the campaign, however his meant for nothing as the away side were totally dominant and inflicted the academies biggest ever defeat in the Leicestershire schools league.

Guthlaxton took the initiative from the very first whistle and despite difficult wet windy conditions showed that with the right tempo and work rate that a team could play football and be successful. They did not have to wait long to open the scoring when a through ball was not challenged for by the defence and the visiting striker coolly slotted past the on rushing Hadley Beeken. The visiting striker got his second soon after when a corner somehow found its way  through a crowd of defenders and the ball was headed into the corner of the goal to double the lead.

The away side were now controlling the game and went three nil up when a mix up between Abhinav Nath and full back Bobi Kwok made a situation for the centre forward that he would have found harder to miss.

Half time came and there needed to be a drastic change in attitude and performance for the home side or they would be in danger of  a humiliation score line. The change in attitude never came. Within minutes of the restart the away side had made it four nil after the lively Guthlaxton winger was the first to react to a Hadley Beeken save, which was extremely poor defensively when there was five defending players in the vicinity. Mark Tan was the only player who had troubled the visiting goalkeeper at this point with two speculative long range efforts that never looked like causing any danger.

More slack defending and extremely poor concentration levels let in the away side for their fifth and sixth goals within minutes of each other. Almost astonishingly carbon copies with the Academies centre backs both giving away possession in the defending third for Guthlaxton to pounce and clinically put away their chances.

The final humiliation came in the last ten minutes when again possession was lost in the Academies own half and were punished for the seventh time of the afternoon. Thankfully for the Under sixteen team this is how the score line stayed and did not have to suffer anymore. With three massive home games remaining in the league starting with local rivals Robert Smyth next week, improved performances is a an absolute necessity.