U18s & U23s

U18s v Eastbourne

One of the best couple of hours I’d seen at Imperial Fields for ages. A partisan crowd, which can’t always be said for first team home games, no queue at the Shak and a win by the odd goal in five.

There was no-one in the line-up whose name was familiar, but those in the know suggested the two young men up front, Deven and Kingsley, were lads to watch.

And so it proved. Tooting found themselves 0-2 down, somewhat against the run of play. Just before the interval, however, the highlighted Kingsley reduced the deficit. 20 minutes and plenty of pressure into the second half, his strike partner Deven tied the game. Both good, instinctive finishes of good centre forward’s pedigree. As the substitutions began, again a name was brought to our attention. And yet again the tip-off was sound, Matthew Harris scoring from a distance with an angled finish that took advantage of a ‘keeper astray.

Cue bedlam from the players, their mates in the stand, their parents and four wizened old souls from the Bog End.

It was absolutely brilliant. Tooting saw out the win and progress in the youth cup. Was great, too, to see senior men from the first team encourage the younger lads from the stands. It says much about the ethos of the club when you see Jordan Clarke, Mo Jallow and James Shaw spend one of their nights off from the club *at* the club. Present too was Jaiden Chang, himself not long out of the 18s set-up. For the young men on the pitch- things to aspire to. To the older men in the stands- football to enjoy. I hear some of the players on the field vs Eastbourne are already noising up the 23s. I shouldn’t be surprised to see them around the firsts sooner rather than later.

U23s v Carshalton

On Monday night the U23s got there Isthmian Development league campaign off to winning start.

After making the short journey to Carshalton Athletic the young Terrors side, including 9 current or existing Academy Scholars started strongly and controlled the first half with good movement of the ball and positive tempo in attack.

That positive start was rudely interrupted by a series of shots that keeper Harris did well to deny with back to back saves. This was quickly followed by a soft penalty awarded to the home side that was well dispatched. The Terrors response was immediate, and with the experience of Daly and Clarke guiding the young talent, the game was drawn level after an intricate passing move was passed into the net by Clarke.

One a piece at half time. After the break Tooting continued their positive play, creating chances to take the lead. The breakthrough came just before the 70th minute, a series of short sharp combinations drove the stripes up the pitch. Some trickery out-wide created a chance for a clean pass across the six yard box that was touched over the keeper by Clarke for his second.

The game still had plenty to give. Carshalton were awarded another penalty, this time saved by Jet Harris in goal. A heavy foul by a Carshalton defender led to a Tooting & Mitcham player leaving the field with suspected concussion, during the resulting coming together of players a Tooting player was dismissed.

This meant that the final 15 minutes Tooting had to play with nine players, Carshalton threatened but the defence and keeper stood tall again.

A positive first performance by the side, against a talented and youthful Carshalton team. Three points on the board, next up league favourites Hastings away.