Presteigne St Andrews FC’s Under 18s team took a notable scalp on Thursday, 5 September when they beat Hereford United 2-1 in a pre-season friendly at Llanandras Park.
This was a really enjoyable game to watch as both sides tried to knock the ball around and Roy Simcock’s team fully played their part in what was a highly competitive as well as entertaining encounter.
All the goals came in the second half with Presteigne taking the lead after an excellent delivery from a free kick eventually fell to Kyle Slaven who buried it past the Hereford keeper.
Not surprisingly the visitors then lifted their game and upped the levels of pressure on the Presteigne goal, but the home side held firm until the dying minutes of the game when a breakdown in communication at the back saw a ball only half-cleared to a Hereford player who did well to loop his effort beyond the home-team keeper and into the net for the equaliser.
It would have been very easy for the Presteigne heads to go down at this point – they had worked so hard to earn the lead and then to defend it – but to their credit they rallied again and went to net the winner.
A ball was played down the right-hand side and Hereford’s players were appealing that it had gone out of play, but the linesman (refuse to call them ‘assistant referees’) determined it hadn’t and Presteigne did what we were all taught to do in school – played to the whistle.
The ball was crossed deep to the far post where it was then knocked back across the face of goal for Gareth Bull to rifle it home for what proved to be the winner.
This was a really encouraging showing by the Under 18s and it’s hoped they will take this on into their first HFA Floodlit Youth League match of the new season which is scheduled for Thursday, 12 September when they will head to Ludlow Town.