Line up: Luca Cunningham, Billy Jordan, Herbie Ellis, Ethan Oldman, Max Crane, Warren Buckman, Mitchell Jackson, Ollie Griggs , Charlie Atkin, Oscar Manly, MacKenzie Travis
Bench: Ewan Parlett, Jonathan Shannon, Josh Yaxley

The visit of Whitton United saw the return of two former players, Ben Stannard who captained the visitors and Callum Pearce who started the game on the bench. It also saw Luca Cunningham make his debut in goal with Marcus Mehew on the bench away with the 1st team for their FA Cup game at Brentwood.

After the slow start at AFC Sudbury Reserves the previous week it was encouraging to see a far better opening to the game from the U23s. It was therefore a little against the run of play when the visitors took full advantage of defensive indecision which left a gaping open goal for the ball to be rolled into less than 15 minutes after the start. The remainder of the half saw the possession shared fairly equally between the teams but the home side winning the collection of yellow cards by two to one. With neither side creating any clear cut chances it looked as though the visitors would go into the break leading by their one goal. OSCAR MANLY had other ideas and opened his account for the season by firing low into the net from a tight angle on the stroke of half time.

Half Time: U23s 1 – 1 Whitton United

The second half started almost as the first had finished with Oscar Manly forcing a good save by Finn Watts in the visitor’s goal, diving low to his right. That bright start to the half was brought to an abrupt end within 5 minutes as Whitton scored two quick goals. The first came from a corner, which has been a regular thorn in the side of the U23s. The cross wasn’t cleared out of the danger area and fell to a visiting player who fired home from close range. The second, moments later, was an own goal when a retreating defender could only turn the right wing cross into his own net. Chances are that had he missed the ball a goal would still have been the result. The first home side substitution came at about the hour mark when Jonathan Shannon replaced Herbie Ellis. This was shortly followed by the U23s best chance of getting back into the game when they were awarded a penalty. Unfortunately Charlie Atkin’s kick was not, and I’m sure he’d admit, the best and was saved by Watts, this time diving low to his left. A surging run from midfield as the game entered its final quarter by Mitchell Jackson saw Watts called into action again as he turned the goal bound shot around the post. Further substitutions saw Ewan Parlett and Josh Yaxley replace Warren Buckman and MacKenzie Travis. With the game edging towards added on time Watts was again tested, first by Oscar Manly whose shot he saved with his legs and then by Max Crane whose effort he saved diving to his right. In the lengthy added on time the score was given an even more distorted appearance when Luca chose to play “keepy uppy”, lost the ball and again presented an open goal to the visitors. It was a disappointing end to the game for him because he had made two or three good saves during the previous 90 minutes.

Full Time: U23s 1 – 4 Whitton United