Convincing wins for Grantham Town youth teams
After finishing third in their JPL Cup group, Grantham Town Under 15s turned their attention to the league with an emphatic 11-0 win against the King's Lynn Town Shadow team.
With the cup game between the two sides ending in a convincing win for the Gingerbreads, they were conscious not to let complacency creep in and started the match in determined fashion.
Pressure was applied on the visitors' defence but King's Lynn remained compact and difficult to break through in the early stages.
In fact it was Lynn who created the first clear-cut opportunity against the run of play as a shot fired in from the angle crashed off the post and away to safety.
Grantham remained composed and pressed forward once more as Rhys Stevens fired over after being sent clear by Harry Winks.
It was Winks again who created the next opportunity, cutting the ball back to Joe Halfhide who fired into the net to give the home side the lead.
King's Lynn had a long range effort that flew wide of the goal, but Stevens replied with a deflected effort that hit the bar as Grantham pressed for a second.
It was, however, 2-0 moments later as Halfhide bagged a brace when he side-stepped a defender to smash home from 20 yards.
Grantham stepped things up by scoring twice in quick succession.
Halfhide completed his hat-trick with a low drive and Aston Taylor tapped in from close range to make it 4-0 following more good work from Winks.
Louis Cardy had two similar efforts, cutting in from the left, but failed to trouble the keeper and then just before half- time Aston Taylor scored a looping free-kick to give Grantham a 5-0 lead.
There was no let up in the scoring in the second half as Halfhide netted his fourth of the game with a 25-yard drive into the roof of the net.
Stevens then had two opportunities to score but both efforts fell the wrong side of the post.
However, Stevens was provider shortly after, prodding the ball through for Winks to score to make it seven.
Stevens finally got on the scoresheet, sweeping in a low cross from Nico Fossey for Grantham’s eighth.
He grabbed his second five minutes later by smashing in the rebound from another Halfhide shot.
King's Lynn had their first spell of pressure in the game and home keeper Harri Bexon had to be at his best to firstly save at close range and then superbly stop one-handed as the ball looked to be heading for the top corner.
Taylor played in Louis Cardy to finish low into the net to make it 10-0 to Grantham before the goal of the game arrived.
A move from back to front involving Flint, Boyes, Price and Davies found Aston Taylor on the edge of the box who calmly laid the ball to Harry Winks to score and round off a convincing 11-0 win.
Grantham Town Under 16s made a good start to their campaign with a 6-0 away win when they travelled to the Gordon Banks Sports Centre to play the Staffordshire Regional Talent Centre in the JPL.
The young Gingerbreads were out of the blocks fast and took control of the game from the start of the first quarter.
A good exchange between the two forwards after 17 minutes saw Price send Wilkerson bursting through on goal and he finished neatly to break the deadlock.
Not giving Staffordshire time to settle, Grantham broke the line again, this time Wilkerson returning the favour and putting Price through who made no mistake in doubling the Gingerbreads advantage after 18 minutes with a glancing header from a neat cross.
The second quarter started as the first had finished and on 32 minutes Poole made an interception on the halfway line which Kane picked up and went on a brilliant solo run, rounding four players then smashing it past the on-coming keeper to make it 3-0.
Still dominating midfield, Guest then spotted Wilkerson making a run through and delivered an inch-perfect pass to which he dispatched home to make it 4-0.
The Gingerbreads continued their dominance, hitting the post, the bar and the home keeper made some excellent saves, notably from a free kick from Guest which Johnson got his head on the end of.
Their hard work paid off in the third quarter with a nice cross from Guest to which Price powerfully headed home to make it five on 46 minutes.
Still pressing and pushing for more, on 56 minutes, a good exchange between Poole and Wilkerson saw the latter complete his hat-trick with a low powerful shot to the corner.
Staffordshire went for broke in the fourth quarter and pushed more players forward, but Grantham were happy to soak up the pressure and hit on the counter.
Price went very close on a few more occasions, but could not complete his hat-trick and the game finished with Grantham keeping a clean sheet.
They are back in action in two weeks time against Birmingham City.
