Prudhoe YC 7 Rothbury 2
Reeves Independent First Division
Rothbury gaffer Danny Olson’s makeshift young side were thumped for seven at the early League leaders and he left them with little doubt that he wanted to see more fight after.
The boss shared a clip of Al Pacino’s famous speech from the movie ‘Any Given Sunday’ on his social media when he’d had time to reflect at home, and those sentiments of ‘dying for that extra yard’ displayed his feelings after the heavy defeat.
“As a team we have to learn quickly to stop making unnecessary individual errors in critical areas,” he said.
“The young players are doing well in difficult circumstances. For one reason and another we can’t get a settled squad - in all my years in football I have never known so many players to be unavailable at any one time, but hopefully time away is over now and we can concentrate on settling the group.”
“It is hard to pick the players up after heavy defeats but these lads take it in their stride and come next week they’ll be fine. Like winning, losing becomes a habit and we will be aiming to put it right from next week.”
There was an audible sigh of resignation at the Rothbury end of the Kimberley Park stand when Darren Graham’s cross-shot flew in from a near impossible angle and pinged off the stanchion. That was Prudhoe’s second of the afternoon and with just 15 minutes on the clock, there was no way back for a very youthful Reds outfit.
Prudhoe had gone ahead in the 10th minute as they capitalised on what looked like a push on the experienced Al Makin in the heart of the back three on the edge of the D. The loose ball ran on to attacking left wing back Kieran Russel who cut inside and fired a curling shot high into the roof of the net at Jack Halton’s near post with Rothbury looking for a whistle that never came.
Any sense of optimism was gone by the 19th minute as three defenders failed to get a challenge in on Adam Bell in the box and he took full advantage of the hesitancy to drill into the net for the third.
Ironically, it was Rothbury who had attempted to play all of the football at that stage. They tried to keep possession and knock it in to feet as they moved it smartly around the pitch, but Prudhoe were sharper and stronger into the challenges and often over-ran the midfield with runners.
There will no doubt be some hard lessons learned this term by the teenagers in a senior League as they make a big move up in terms of both physicality and nous. But the belief in the system is there; the desire to play the game on the deck and to pass and move that the Coquetdalers have instilled over the past couple of seasons.
Boss Olson buys into that philosophy and knows that there will be some rocky patches for his youths as they will come up against sides happier to play with a more direct style – but he will no doubt want them to display more desire and aggression themselves.
“We are comfortable in our approach and style of play and there were some glimpses of that yesterday,” said the gaffer.
“I must make a special mention to our top scorer Hugh Dennis who on only his second senior appearance came of the bench to score for the second game in a row. It was also good to get young Josh (Blakey) back on the pitch and get 60 minutes into Lee (Richardson). The staff are 100% committed to this project and the chairman and committee are 110% committed to bringing an entertaining, vibrant side to the town. We re-group Wednesday and go again.”
That’s the challenge that is presented by development, and the Reds are very much in something of a transitional phase at present with the likes of Chris Coe, Greg Woodburn and skipper Kyle Smith looking like old heads in their early 20s.
The Reds did pull one back four minutes before the break when Tony Brown curled over a free kick which bounced awkwardly in the box and Lee Richardson capitalised at the back post to squeeze home low under the keeper.
The next goal was to prove crucial and it was Prudhoe who grabbed it, Ryan Burnyeat powerfully heading home a centre unmarked at the near post five minutes after the break to knock the stuffing out of Rothbury.
Bell added a fifth for Prudhoe on 61 minutes and James Reay shot into the corner from the edge of the box for the sixth 11 minutes later as the Reds back line found themselves being turned by overlapping runs down the wings and long balls over the top.
Although Reds sub Dennis came off the bench and pulled one back from Woodburn’s assist in the 77th minute, Sam Moore rounded things off for the rampant hosts seven minutes from time.
The disruption to the football programme caused by the Covid-19 outbreak has undoubtedly hindered competitive game time for the Reds young-guns and the only way that they will continue to progress is by getting more match day experience under their belts - or by bulking out on Guinness and feeding them raw meat!
With Prudhoe wracking up their third successive victory, it was very much a case of Rothbury taking whatever positives they could from the defeat, and captain Smith said: “It was a very young side and they’ve still got a lot to learn but that will come with time. Their attitudes are first class in all honesty - they seem keen to learn and I think the more game time they get the more they’ll progress.”
“The result was terrible but we learn from it and move on, there’s going to be games like that where we have a lot of players missing but, like I say, we put it behind us and move onto the next.”
The Reds are on the road again when they visit Seaton Burn on Saturday (19th September, kick-off 2.30pm).
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