FA Premier Academy League U19, 06/10/01

FA Premier Academy League U19

Sat 6th October 2001

Arsenal 5 (0) Millwal 1 (0)

Arsenal: Craig Holloway; Alex Bailey, Ben Chorley, Sebastian Svard (Justin Hoyte ~75), Nicky Nicolau; Dan Hollington (Matthew Rouse ~80), Rohan Ricketts, Stephen Santry (Taffazul Islam ~85), Jerome Thomas; Jermaine Brown, Carlin Itonga

Scorers: Thomas ~47,~78, Brown (p) ~50, Itonga ~57, Ricketts ~65

A strong Arsenal team eventually overcame the conditions and a competitive Millwall side to win comfortably in the end. It was a game of two different halves though. Kicking into the strong wind in the first half, Arsenal strugggled to get their passing game going, and kept getting caught by Millwall's offside trap. If anything, the visitors had slightly the better of the half, with long balls forward to their two big strikers causing problems for the Arsenal defence.

Goalmouth incident in the first half was at something of a premium. Millwall had 2 or 3 good chances as far as I recall, the best of them when the ball was poked forward into the middle of the penalty area to find one of the young Lions wingers completely unmarked. He looked offside, but the flag stayed down and he seemed certain to score until Holloway came out quickly to make an astonishing block. The keeper made another great save not long afterwards when a ball was played in from the right and was glanced goalwards I think by a defender. It was creeping just inside the far post until Holloway somehow pushed it past the post.

At the other end Arsenal had one great chance when I think Hollington chipped a ball into the area to find Itonga. He flicked the ball over his head to leave himself with only the keeper to beat from about 3 yards out, albeit from an acute angle, but he dragged it wide of the far post. Thomas also went quite close with a trademark run and cut inside from the left, but his shot from the edge of the area drifted just wide of the near post.

There was far more incident in the 2nd half. Millwall shocked Arsenal by taking the lead inside the first minute of the half. Some muddled defending on the Arsenal right left the Millwall left winger unmarked and he had plenty of time to measure a cross which picked out the tall no 9 in the middle and he crashed home a header from about 8 yards.

However the goal, and no doubt a bit of a half time roasting from Don Howe, galvanised the young Gunners into action and they were level within a couple of minutes. Thomas went on a typically scintillating run down the left, evading a couple of tackles to leave himself clear on the left of the area. He had a couple of red shirts in the middle to pull the ball back to, but chose to shoot from a tight angle. The keeper, possibly surprised, did get a touch but the ball ended up in the back of the net.

Not long afterwards it was 2-1. I think it was Thomas again who broke down the left and cut back to chip a ball towards Brown on the opposite side of the area. He hooked the ball back into the middle, where I think Santry contested it with a defender. The ball bounced up and hit the defender on the arm and the ref, perhaps harshly, pointed to the spot. The keeper went the right way and almost got to Brown's spot kick, but it was sufficiently well hit and placed to find the bottom corner.

About 5 minutes later Arsenal got a 3rd with a quite brilliant passing move. Ricketts started it on the halfway line with a flick out to Itonga on the right touchline. The striker broke clear and had Ricketts and Brown inside in support with the Millwall defence struggling to get back. Itonga's passed found Ricketts and he took it on to the edge of the area, holding the ball up briefly before slipping a pass forward to pick out Itonga again as he continued his run across the 18 yard line. The striker sidestepped a defender before lashing a left foot shot from about 15 yards high into the top left hand corner.

In between times there was a 20 man scrum which was all a bit needless. Didn't see whether he had any cause, but one of the Millwall midfielders took exception to something Santry did and lashed out with a fist, fortunately only catching the Arsenal man in the back. Santry sensibly didn't react, but Itonga did and dived in to confront the Millwall player, sparking a mass bit of pushing and shoving. When it finally died down, the ref booked Santry and the Millwall lad, when he could perhaps have sent off the latter and possibly Itonga as well.

Anyway, they eventually got back to the football, and Arsenal duly scored their 4th goal in the space of about 20 minutes with another well worked move down the right. This time I think Santry found Itonga on the touchline again, and he teased the fullback before cutting inside and rolling a pass along the 18 yard line to pick out Ricketts making a late run, and the midfielder hit a side foot shot which curled out of the keeper's reach into the bottom left corner.

Thomas got his 2nd and Arsenal's 5th with about 15 minutes to go. I think it was Chorley's pass over the top which allowed him to beat the offside trap and take the ball on with only the keeper to beat, which he did by leaving him on his backside with a cheeky stepover, and slotting into the empty net from an angle.

Itonga missed a bit of a sitter late on, and I have a vague memory of Millwall also wasting a good chance to pull a goal back just before the end, but otherwise they barely threatened Holloway's goal in the 2nd half.

Given that all but 2 of the Arsenal starting 11 are already on pro contracts, and most of them featured in last season's FA cup winning squad, a comfortable win wasn't at all surprising. However, they did struggle to get things going in the first half, and it took 3 quick goals early in the 2nd half to demoralise the visitors and make the rest of the game a bit of a stroll.

Holloway had a pretty good game overall, apart from one misjudged charge off his line in the first half which could have cost a goal.

In defence, the experienced partnership of Chorley and Svard had a few problems with the Millwall strikers in the first half, but battled away and were rarely troubled in the 2nd. Chorley even had time to demonstrate some nifty footwork which I've not seen from him before. Svard went off apparently injured and was replaced by Justin Hoyte who looked very assured. He played for the England U19s in midweek (and he's not yet 17 till next month I believe), and is a definite name to watch in my book. Bailey and Nicolau both had slightly tentative games defensively I thought, but got forward well when they could.

In central midfield, Ricketts got better as the game went on, though it seems to me there are perhaps signs that he thinks more of himself than others. Hollington was making a step up from the U17s, and had a quietish game, though he did play a couple of very perceptive first time passes, switching play from one side to the other. He also went off injured about 10 minutes from time and was replaced I think by Matthew Rouse, another 16/17 year old, though not entirely sure and it may have been Ashley Probets.

Santry was the less eye-catching of the wide men, and it was Thomas on the left wing who would probably have been named man of the match. He has all the skills necessary, the only question is his temperament and application, which on Saturday was good.

Up front Itonga had a typically mixed game, though on balance pretty good, a couple of bad misses being more than made up for by a superb goal and a few good runs. Brown is not so much of an out and out striker, and often plays as an attacking midfielder, but he had a quietly effective game I thought. I was disappointed not to see David Bentley, but another of the spectators there said that he'd had a family bereavement. Tafazzul Islam, who I think has been injured for a few months came on for his first appearance this season, and did some good running and chasing in midfield for the last 5 minutes.

Derek

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