Steeton u18s 0

Ventus Yeadon u18s 3

STEETON Under-18s suffered another defeat at the hands of Ventus, but they did not play that bad, and if they had taken their chances in the first half, the game would have been a whole lot different.

Ventus's main tactic was to hit long balls up to their pacey strikers as fast as they can and Steeton defence seemed to deal with that threat pretty well with Harrison Houldsworth, Reece Hird, Zain Hussain and Tom Ormerod on top of their game. When in possession Steeton looked a threat going forward.

Tom Crossland nearly got Steeton off the mark when a lovely ball from James Cox found Harry Farnell down the right. He fired an early cross to the front post for the onrushing Crossland, but the ball seemed to come off his knee and go wide from three yards out.

Dominic Westcott had the next chance, first from a header when Will Kaye picked out his lovely run into the Ventus box. He flicked his header goalwards that the keeper fumbled, Westcott had followed up and, with the keeper on the floor, Westcott's second effort struck the upright and out to safety.

Steeton keeper Elliot Wilson played a short pass to Ormerod, he was robbed by Ventus's flying striker and, as Ormerod battled to gain possession, he pulled at the striker's shoulder and down he went, penalty. Fired home by Ventus.

It was Crossland again with the next Steeton chance. They passed the ball about beautifully working it through midfield, one side to the next and then splitting Ventus's defence with a through ball, the ball across the box found Crossland at the back post but he failed to finish the move off.

Ventus thought they had scored another when a corner was swung in and Wilson tried to collect under the challenge of the Ventus player who forced the ball home. But the referee had deemed the challenge unfair and awarded the free-kick to Steeton.

Steeton’s day was to get worse, when a defender had two attempts to clear the ball but failed then there was an attempt to bring the ball down in the box that was pounced upon by Ventus making it 2-0.

A long ball over the top from Ventus was chased by their pacey striker, Wilson rushed from his line and went to ground to collect the ball, but the striker managed to get there first and down he went. The referee awarded the penalty that was dispatched. That started a series of events that saw Wilson and a Ventus midfielder red carded for fighting.

Steeton tried to get back into the game and still managed to create some half-chances, but it just was not happening for the young chevrons even to the point of missing a penalty, with Ventus's goalkeeper making a good save from Farnell's strike.