WATFORD FRIENDLY LEAGUE UNDER 9 GREEN DIVISION
Brady Maccabi 3 St Albans 0
The two in-form teams in the Watford Friendly League Green Division went head to head this weekend resulting in the expected cracker of a game.
Brady opened the scoring with a superb corner, floated into the box by Jacob Brand, which Freddy Martin met with a powerful header into the bottom corner of the net making it 1-0.
Following more pressure from the home side, another corner was won, curled in by Ben Tibber and this time powered home by Daniel Dutch who was later named as man of the match.
St Albans rallied, with Taylor Rosen making some barnstorming runs into the Brady half only to be met with typical steel from Jordan Smith and Noah Graft both making crunching tackles to bring the onslaught to a halt. Rosens booming goalkicks were also causing Brady some issues, but these were sorted out convincingly by Ben Tibber and Jordan Smith.
St Albans' best work was coming from the right with Brandon Trainis and Oliver Sasoon combining well but to no avail as Brady held firm until the half time whistle.
The main talking point in the second half was produced by Brady keeper Sam Meisel who pulled off what can only be described as the save of the season. The St Albans striker drove in a convincing effort that was dipping and swerving in the air, Meisel had to move one way then readjust to keep it out expertly and keep the score to 2-0, unbelievable tekkers!
St Albans valiant fight was ended late on when Benjy Randall slotted in through the defenders legs to deceive the St Albans keeper and make it 3-0 and game over.
Brady’s co-manager David Tibber said: "This was always going to be our toughest game so far. It turned into a real battle in midfield, our boys showed great strength and heart the whole game and never let their concentration slip – we look forward to 2013 in high expectation."
This was Bradys fifth win on the bounce and moves them above St Albans into third position. In this kind of form anything is possible in the second half of the season, especially if they can take revenge on Northwood next week, the only team who have had any joy against Brady this season.