Match Report: Under 9's B v Wolves Under 9: 6 - 2 Home Win (League)

After the recent weather any thoughts of a grey day were soon banished by the warm sunshine that met us at Headley Court. Ashtead were soon into their stride against a determined Wolves team and after some strong tackling by Callum Clark the ball fell to Will Gamble who drove it home from the edge of the area. Ashtead continued to dominate until the referee, in a moment of madness, awarded a penalty to Wolves, which was calmly struck past Connor Northeast despite him going the right way. Ashtead appear to be made of sterner stuff these days and Harry Steer soon rattled the Wolves crossbar from a beautifully struck free-kick but it wasn't long before he put us back in front.

Leading 2-1 at half time Ashtead were quickly back on the pitch and keen to continue their excellent first half performance, unfortunately, a moment of hesitation in the Ashtead goal led to another Wolves equaliser and I was heading for a cardiac arrest. The arrival of Richard "I like driving in my car" Elphick was timed to see Ashtead lift their heads and push forward in search of more goals and we were treated to an exceptional last 15 minutes with goals from Oscar Leonard and James Taylor giving us the cushion to be more expansive and 2 more goals from the prince of goalscoring, Harry Steer, gave him the first ever hat-trick for the "b" squad. Strong tackling and heading from Louis Illingworth, Tom Melody and Tom Proudfoot ensured that the defence was always stepping into line and Ashtead are certainly one step beyond where they were this time last year!!