Men's 3rd XI vs Knole Park Development

For Cliftonville 3s versus Knole Park, it was a late 4:00pm pushback for the development sides. Off the back of a strong performance, Ville were looking to continue their run of form against a new opponent. A match under the lights at the home ground gave a great backdrop for a very vocal crowd for both supporters.

It was a tentative start for the home side which gave Ville some early pressure to deal with. The visitors clearly had some talented players on the pitch, giving Ville something to think about. It seemed like the skilful visitors might be a bit of a handful, no better way to deal with this than an early goal for the home side. With Henry running down the wing, searching for opportunities, he played a low driven cross to the top of the D where Noah lifted it over the stick of one defender and then drilled it into the bottom corner past the keeper for 1-0, a brilliant finish. This settled the team into their stride. Soon after the opening goal, Aron snapped an on target shot at the edge of the D which found Alex who with a bit of goal thievery, tapped it home to make sure! 2-0. With excellent link up plays from the midfield, Aron and Elliot brought quick delivery to Noah and Henry on the wings. This was beginning to stretch Knole and open up the park. The repeated aerials were absorbed by Ville’s defence which closed down the opponent’s attack. Ville returned the threat putting some quick balls into the opposition's D only to be capitalised on again by Alex for his second.

Into the break with a clear advantage, still gave no room for complacency in the captain’s half-time talk. There were still some rumblings from the talented visitors who were getting frustrated with the score. These rumblings progressed to a series of short corners for Ville to defend. Martin rose to the occasion and kept his goal from falling. The lines cleared from Ed to Paddy. Kit found Noah and the ball passed to Elliot, Dylan’s unselfish pass to Asa who found the back of the net and the youngsters had made their statement…. 4-0. Movement and support were the keys to this performance and another chance fell to Alex who on the reverse stick lifted the ball beautifully over the keeper’s head for a special hat-trick on his squad debut. At 5-0, Ed and Jude were punching forward with some runs of their own. Archie couldn't help himself and just had to lay one down! ‘With great power comes great… goals’ he pushed it home to complete a fantastic team performance to make it 6-0. It wasn’t the score that was impressive but the attitude and steady confidence. ‘Up The Ville!!’