Youth football: Lion Cubs eye title... Barnham teams lift cups

Victories for Pagham under-18s, Barnham Trojans Pumas under-16s, Barnham Trojans under-13s, Chichester City Colts under-13s and Bognor under-12s all feature in our latest youth football round-up.

Pagham 3 Littlehampton 2

This top-of-the-table clash saw Pagham just edge resilient Littlehampton.

They took the game to the league leaders and went ahead when a defensive error saw Braden Kenny head the ball home.

Pagham responeded well and Sam Connelly won the ball in midfield to set up Josh Irish, who gave the visiting keeper no chance on 30 minutes.

Seven minutes later, Joe Kilham prodded the ball home when Littlehampton’s keeper spilled the ball. With the half-time whistle about to blow, David Crouch added a third to put the home side 3-1 up.

The second half was minutes old when Jake Greenslade shook the Littlehampton bar but this rallied Littlehampton and from a free-kick on the right, Adam Holder fired in Town’s second on 50 minutes.

Littlehampton thought they had earned a point when the last shot of the game flew into the net but the referee had blown the whistle only seconds before, leaving Pagham needing one more victory to take the west-division title.

UNDER-16

Barnham Trojans Pumas 2 Felpham Colts 1

In front of more than 300 spectators, Barnham Trojans Pumas overcame a committed Felpham team to secure the Invitation Cup, their first cup win.

Goals from Fraser Beaumont and Louis Brady saw the Pumas clinch victory in a great game between two talented teams.

Arran Batemen from Felpham and Alex Hall from Barnham made crucial saves. Barnham dominated the first half with excellent defending from the back four allowing the midfield of MoM Ben Charman and his team-mates to take control of the centre and give the strikers opportunities.

After scoring two goals in the first half, Barnham saw Felpham get a goal back midway through the second half.

There was relief for the Barnham lads when the final whistle went.

UNDER-13

Barnham Trojans 8 Chi City Colts 1

Challenge Cup final

Barnham Trojans retained the Challenge Cup for an unprecedented third year with a near-faultless display against highly-regarded Chichester City Colts.

Brady opened the scoring after just five minutes with a great finish from a Ratcliffe through-ball and went on to complete a first-half hat-trick with his best display of an impressive season.

Allen and Barton added further goals to make it 5-0 at the break. Allen and Ratcliffe had struck the woodwork too.

In the second half, Jelley superbly marshalled a defence in which Trodd and Jacob-Dicks showed they could handle the big occasion while Nicholls showed relentless energy at wing-back.

Boniface in goal was rarely troubled while the midfield of Chapman, Griffen-Tilley, Barton and Ratcliffe were pulling the strings.

Further goals were added by Brady, Britton and Ratcliffe, with Britton’s goal a real team effort capping a great team display.

Henton, Holden and Robbins were introduced from the bench whilse Parker scored a blinding goal for Chichester.

Congratulations go to the Trojans and special mention to the Colts players and management who all applauded the victors at the final whistle.

Chichester City Youth 1 Chichester City Colts 3

City Colts made the short trip to face neighbours City Youth.

Colts started well and looked comfortable in possession. However, City Youth took the lead when a long ball over the Colts defence hit a bobble as Williams was about to clear, leaving Gambill the simple task of sidefooting home.

Colts came fighting back when William Parker won back possession before laying off to MoM James Nicol, who unleashed a great effort that bounced over Thorn to draw the sides level.

In the second half, Colts took the lead. A neat exchange of passes between Jones, William Parker and Craddock lead to Taylor Parker whipping in a cross from the left to the back post, where Toby Watkins headed home.

With ten minutes remaining, Colts attacked in numbers and won another corner. Toby Evans delivered perfectly for Sam Jones to plant a firm header into the net from six yards out.

COLTS: Williams, J Jones, Simmons, Rochester, Angell, S Jones, W Parker, Watkins, Evans, Craddock, T Parker, Nicol, Hamblin.

UNDER-12

Worthing Minors 0 Bognor Youth 3

Bognor’s 2015 unbeaten run continued with a hard-fought victory.

A flowing move by Bognor resulted in Ben Taylor being fouled in the area for a penalty which was scored by Taylor.

The rest of the half was end to end with both sides creating chances and both keepers making good saves.

In the second half, a cross from Robson Parr resulted in Bruce Eggleton scoring Bognor’s second. In the last five minutes, Bognor scored a third from a cross-shot from Taylor.

Great defence from the Bognor players, especially George Budge, boosted a battling team performance by Bognor who are now ten points clear at the top of the A division.

BOGNOR: Boyagian, Budge, Eggleton, Fearns, Gilbert-Jones, Jones, Kitowski, Parr, Stroud, Taylor & Tilbury.