St Neots Town U18 vs Ramsey Town U18

Huntingdonshire  County Under 18 Youth Cup Semi Final

ST NEOTS TOWN U18      5       RAMSEY TOWN U18     1         

St Neots cruised through to the Final of the Huntingdonshire County Youth Cup where they will face Eynesbury Rovers or Yaxley who play their semi-final later in February.   Visitors Ramsey were game opponents but lacked the penetration and firepower to seriously test a St Neots defence in which Harry Jenkins and Dan Tousaint-Jackson were outstanding.   St Neots utilised their full squad using the maximum sixteen players with roll on roll off substitutes and looked comfortable throughout with the only blot on their performance the careless concession of the Ramsey consolation goal.   This is a trophy that the side won two seasons ago and they will still be hoping for a league and cup double this season.  

St Neots dominated the opening 25 minutes of the match and Sean Barker fired narrowly over the bar before leading scorer Karl Safee twice tested visiting keeper Jake Galloway before two goals in a minute put the home.   The first after 21 minutes came from a swift attack down the left hand side and a cross to the far post where Sean Barker netted with a close range volley.   Before Ramsey had time to recover they conceded a second goal as Junior Moya moved up to join the attack to smash home a fierce shot past the startled goalkeeper from a Jake Leonce cross.   Ramsey were a hard working physical side that limited St Neots openings and they created a couple of chances on the break with Will England sending a free kick over the bar and Liam Parish failing to get a touch to a cross in front of goal.   Just before the break Moya should have claimed a second goal but he headed a Leonce cross tamely over the bar.

St Neots had a different looking side after the break with the introduction of three substitutes and the midfield being run by two of them Ryan Sharman and Connor Belgrove.   Sharman was quickly into action setting up Sean Barker for his second goal of the match after just 47 minutes but St Neots became profligate with both Sharman and Safee wasting easy chances.   After 55 minutes Ramsey gave themselves a flicker of hope when Liam Parish chased a long clearance into the penalty area beating goalkeeper Kieran Gibbons to the ball to lob it into the unguarded net but within five minutes St Neots reasserted themselves as Sharman again showed his class with a perfectly weighted pass inside the final defender for Dion Sembie-Ferris to glide through to reinstate his sides’ three goals advantage.   David Hartley saw a shot cleared off the line by Josh England but with substitutes Rukky Diejomadh and Sembie Ferris terrorising the Ramsey defence down either flank more goal should have followed.   Belgrove brought the save of the match from Galloway who pushed his close range effort over the bar and at the other end Ramsey’s best second half chance was squandered by Will England who saw a close range effort go wide.   Fittingly St Neots had the last word as Dion Sembie-Ferris produced an electric burst of speed to get between goalkeeper and last defender to complete the scoring.

St Neots: Gibbons, Massey, Moya, Jenkins, Tousaint-Jackson, Leneghan, Barker, Tamakloe, Safee, Hartley, Leonce.

Subs used:  Sharman,Sembie-Ferris,Belgrove, Diejomadh (Rukky), and Mattin.

Cards:  none

John Walker