On Sunday December 9th, 14 of the Performance Phase players faced Airbus at home in the JD Welsh Premier Development League (North), writes Steve Benyon.

The squad saw the return of Lewis Rees after injury and Aaron Lloyd after attending England trials.

The game started off at a frantic pace, with a dubious straight red for Harley Steel after 6 minutes, and a well-worked goal from the visitors to see them leading going into the break.

It was a sucker-punch, as for large spells of the first-half we dominated proceedings.

The second-half started much the same, but again we were dealt another blow with another red, this time for Louis Bradford.

Again, we dominated proceedings but couldn’t find that all-important goal. Our discipline was poor at times, whereby we will address this during the week. However, I cannot fault the energy and desire levels from the players after playing large spells with 10 and then 9 men. 

This week we prepare again for two National Cup college games, as we play Birmingham Met and Newcastle Under Lyme, on Wednesday and Friday respectively.

Squad:

1. Lewis Dutton. 2. Matt Cole. 3. Josh Bailey. 4. Louis Bradford. 5. Liam Ihekwoaba. 6. Alex Cadman. 7. Aaron Lloyd. 8. Lewis Rees. 9. James Rutter. 10. Ismail Ozdemir. 11. Harley Steel. 12. Ben Jones. 14. Ethan Short. 15. Alex Brownhill.