U14A fall to Carshalton in Surrey Cup despite promising performance

By Josh Hood

The Hampton U14A football team narrowly missed out to Carshalton Sports College in the Surrey Cup, losing 1-2.

The game began with Hampton keen to follow their coach’s instructions by implementing some patient build-up play.

This culminated in a great dribble from Hayden Christian, a good shot from Zain Suterwalla and a quick follow up from Chibby Nwoko, who powered the ball home from inside the 6 yard box past the flailing hands of the Carshalton keeper.

Subsequently, the game evened out with the inevitable one-on-one battles starting to emerge. 

As a result, a free kick was won by the opposition.  They whipped the ball into the danger area, and several moments later were running away in celebration having equalised through a tap-in from a loose ball.

A similar open-play ethic continued for the remainder of the first half as more chances were created but none converted.

The opening spells of the second half mirrored those of the first as the usual composed play that Hampton teams aim for was displayed to a far greater extent once again.

Despite this, however, a Carshalton midfielder played a ball straight through the defensive line to put his teammate in on goal. 

He stretched for the pass, touched the ball around the keeper and finished confidently from an impressive angle and distance into the open net.

Hampton did have more chances after this, but unfortunately none of the opportunities were converted, leaving yet another scrambled finish, filled with play in only one half and nobody back for the home side.

The dying minutes didn’t provide any changes to the score sheet but left a decent performance somewhat not reflected in the result, sending Hampton out of the Surrey Cup.