Under-18s Report | Argyle 2-1 Forest Green Rovers
Argyle Under-18s picked up a much-needed three points at Millennium Fields on Saturday morning, beating Forest Green Rovers 2-1 in the Youth Alliance League South.
A glancing header in the final minutes of the game from substitute Frankie Maund secured the victory for Argyle, after Joel Sullivan’s headed effort cancelled out the visitors’ early goal in the first half.
The Greens’ bright start to the game quickly clouded over, much like the sky, after Forest Green picked up an early lead. After winning the ball, attacking play down the right flank and a quick delivery into the area from Thomas Conteh handed Billy Glover the chance to test Dan Holman.
The Rovers striker flicked the cross into the far corner, leaving the Argyle keeper scrambling, before running away to celebrate with his teammates after taking the lead within three minutes.
Soon enough, however, the game was back to square one. After winning a free-kick and corner, Cole Fisher whipped the ball into the area and, after some head tennis, a flying Sullivan leapt above all in the area and powerfully headed home past a diving Callum Godfrey in the visitors’ goal.
Argyle were then hunting for a second for the remainder of the first half, but were unable to find it. Chances around the 18-yard box fell to Kian Burch and Sam Lord, but they could not turn their efforts on target into goals.
On the flip side, Forest Green surprised the Greens on the counter-attack on several occasions and if it was not for strong defensive efforts from Toby Haley and Joe Mwaro to clear the ball, the game might have played out differently.
The second 45 minutes was a completely different story. Neither side created any clear chances until the final 10 minutes of the tie, with substitutions and a few bookings highlighting the previous 30+ minutes of play.
The visitors countered quickly after stopping an attacking phase from Argyle in the 80th minute, but shielding from Sullivan and a close save from Holman ended the threat.
As the game neared its end, the winner was found. Quick play created space for Burch on the left of the 18-yard box, and a clipped ball towards the six-yard box was flicked towards goal by Maund, sending the keeper the wrong way and securing three points for Argyle - just as the sun came out.
Head Coach Jamie Lowry said: “I’m really happy. We asked the boys to be competitive, to run, do the basics, fight, compete, win first and second balls - everything we didn't do on Tuesday, pretty much - and they did that. If you do all the basics really well, then you get opportunities and earn the right to create a little bit of quality at the end, which we did for the goal. I’m very happy with the performance.
“We went through the post-match analysis on Tuesday and showed where we weren't winning one-on-one duals, making tackles, landing on first and second balls, the mentality which we lacked, but today everybody was fantastic.
“Sully [Joel Sullivan] was fantastic as always, as a leader, and his goal was brilliant. The way he attacked the ball, there was only going to be one winner. Every single one of them competed and had a reaction from Tuesday which is important.
“In an ideal world, we'd like to pass the ball a bit better and a bit nicer, but we can only play what's in front of us, and the surface didn’t allow us to pass the ball loads, so we had to play the game in the right way, which we did.”
Argyle: 40 Dan Holman, 2 Toby Haley, 3 Joe Mwaro (12 Toby Maclean, 85), 4 Seb Campbell, 5 Sam Hayman, 6 Joel Sullivan (capt), 7 Cole Fisher (15 Frankie Maund, 73), 8 Sam Lord, 9 Kian Burch, 10 Trialist, 11 Fletcher Poole. Substitutes: 1 Leo McCormick, 14 Billy Devlin, 16 Jovan Wamani.
Goals: Sullivan 8, Maund 88
Booked: Haley 35, Poole 52
