WATFORD FRIENDLY LEAGUE UNDER 16 SPRING SHIELD COMPETITION
Finchley Revolution 0 Stonegrove Park 6

Stonegrove Park fired up their season with an emphatic six-goal victory in the first game of the Spring Shield competition.

After a bitterly disappointing league performance from an often under-strength team, Stonegrove pulled out all the stops and punished Finchley at every opportunity.

Despite the scoreline, this was a close fought contest with Finchley dominating in periods, but they were unable to finish the job off with three shots hitting the post and Stonegrove's Dan Lee pulling off a fine penalty save at 4-0 to stop Finchley’s revival hopes.

Finchley started strongly but were rocked back when Joseph Eskenazy slotted the ball home in the second minute.

Stonegrove then put together some lovely passing moves, but Finchley were fighting back when they were caught on the hop once again when Dan Kuber opened his account with a shot from outside the area which looped beautifully over Finchley's goalie into the net.

There then followed a prolonged spell of pressure from Finchley which was dealt with proficiently by the back four of Michael Simons, Jordan Mizrahi, Sam Simmons and Edan Marks with Jacob Corren and Yoni Chittiyat rotating in these positions.

Finchley’s downfall came from their lack of concentration when Kuber lofted a great free kick in from the half way line for Barney Rhodes to neatly slot into the corner and was further exacerbated when Michael Simons tried a long-range shot straight to Finchley’s keeper which dribbled in through his legs.

Stonegrove went in at half time leading 4-0, with keeper Dan Lee preserving a clean sheet with a great penalty save.

Stonegrove continued to soak up any pressure and Kuber got two more to complete his hat-trick with a penalty conversion to make it 6-0.

Finchley battled on bravely but couldn't get the ball in the net. Joe Woolf had a rare quiet game up front and fine midfield marshalling from the two Ollie’s - Cohen and Lauder and Scott Greenfield completed the all-round excellent Stonegrove performance.