Marden High – 1 : 5 – Valley Gardens

Match Report

The U13s lost their unbeaten league record on Wednesday night with a 5-1 home defeat by Valley Gardens, who had earlier this season knocked them out of the cup in their only other defeat this year.

After a great start, which saw some strong challenges and neat passing moves, Marden took the lead when midfielder Dan Henderson shifted the ball onto his right foot before firing into the bottom corner from the edge of the box.

The away side soon started to dominate however and scored twice in quick succession from close range after two long corners were dropped into the six yard box and tapped home. The Year 8s were defending deep but couldn’t deal with set pieces, ‘keeper Aidan McDonald tipping a free kick onto the crossbar before the rebound was tapped in for 3-1.

As heads started to drop it was 4-1 just before half time when another dangerous corner was only cleared to the edge of the box and the resulting effort ended up over the line via a deflection off McDonald after coming back off the bar.

A fresher approach to the second half saw Marden improve and put in a spirited performance, but they could not create enough to get themselves back in the game, conceding late on to make it 5-1 after Aidan pulled off a couple of good one-on-one saves.

The attitude and commitment was there right to the end and the lads were unlucky to be on the end of such a heavy defeat, but the better team won and Marden will need a win in their last game against local rivals John Spence to finish in the top 2 in the league and progress to the play-off semi-finals.