U9s in Edgar Street final as underdogs hit form

Leominster MINORS U9s 0, Ledbury SWIFTS U9s 2

LEDBURY Swifts U9s travelled to Leominster on Saturday as underdogs in the Hillman Florist Cup semi-final and came out on top with the best team performance of the season to reach the final.

The game was pretty even to start and Leominster thought they had taken the lead after ten minutes when they netted, but the referee disallowed the goal for a foul on Ryan Gobey.

Swifts took the lead after 15 minutes, Ryan Jones played a super ball through to Ben Miller who turned and took three defenders out of the game and scored past the advancing Leominster keeper.

Leominster put the Swifts under pressure from the start of the second-half and brilliant saves by Ledbury keeper James Loader and super defending by the Swifts' trio of Ryan Jones, Ryan Gobey and Scott Brown ably supported by the midfield trio of Phillip Davis, Tom Skittery and Harrison Oakshott Francis.

Swifts extended their lead with five minutes to go when a clearance by Ryan Gobey put Ben Miller clean through and he put the ball through the Leominster keeper's legs.

Swifts play the final on Hereford United's ground on May 6 against either Bromyard Town or Pegasus Juniors.

Swifts return to league action tomorrow (Saturday) when they visit Ross Dynamos, all players to meet at the rugby club at 9.30am.

ROSS JUNIORS U11s 7, LEDBURY SWIFTS U11s 1

LEDBURY Swifts travelled the short distance to Ross for this third round tie in the Tony Cole Cup.

A tough fixture got harder when, with injury and illness striking, Ledbury took to the field with only 10 players. Ross took the lead in the first few minutes, when a corner was allowed to land almost on the goal-line, and a Ross player was first to react to poke the ball home. After this set-back, the Ledbury team really knuckled down to the task, and generally kept Ross at bay, with all the players getting stuck in to break up the rhythm of the Ross attack.

Jacob Cory and Joe Crichard were denied at the other end by timely clearances from the Ross defenders, and two corners in quick succession pegged Ross back. The home team's slick passing eventually told just before half-time, as they took a 2-0 lead with a shot from the edge of the box that gave Patrick Merryman no chance in the Ledbury goal.

Ledbury started the second-half determined to take the attack to Ross, and Jacob Cory was unlucky to see his shot bounce to safety off the inside of the post after a neat one-two with Crichard. Unfortunately Ross stormed up field, and with Ledbury short of numbers, made it 3-0 with a confident finish. Ledbury were not to be denied, and Joe Crichard pulled one back when the Ross keeper could only push a Matthew Rooke effort straight to his feet, and he finished easily from six yards. After this though, Ledbury began to tire as the extra man told for Ross. They scored at regular intervals to take the score to 7-1 at the final whistle.

However all the Ledbury team can feel proud of their efforts at shutting Ross out for long periods of the game.