Academy Blues fall to defeat against Grantham Town

Grantham Town beat Long Eaton United 4-1 in the U19 National League Alliance on Wednesday afternoon.

The visitors led 3-0 at the break and extended their lead to four goals in the second half, before a late consolation goal came from Ryan Bache.

In the opening minutes the Blues looked bright, although they could not convert their passing play into a clear cut chance.

With recent injuries affecting the defence, Andrew Tsolakis filled in at right back and made two crucial blocks in the goalmouth to deny Grantham an early goal.

Moments later, Grantham were awarded a penalty, their number nine was entrusted with taking the spot kick, but Mitchell Leivers dived the right way and pushed the ball onto the post to deny the centre forward.

Just as Long Eaton were finding their rhythm in midfield, a quick counterattack pierced the Blues’ defence and Grantham’s number seven tucked the ball past Leivers to score the opener in the 11th minute.

Long Eaton looked for an instant reply – Tsolakis’ corner was headed down by Ben Sandhu to Destiny Conteh, who hit a sweet volley which took a deflection and glanced off the top of the crossbar.

Grantham doubled their lead in the 22nd minute, their right-back surged forward from defence and picked out the top corner with an ambitious effort from range – an excellent goal which came against the run of play and knocked the wind out of the Long Eaton’s sails.

The visitors made it 3-0 in the 33rd minute. A deflected corner fell for Grantham’s number four to poke in from point-blank range – the last significant action of the first half.

A cagey second half followed as Grantham looked to hold on to their three-nil lead. After a battle for possession in the middle of the park, Sandhu initiated a counterattack with an inviting ball played in behind for the defence for Bache to chase – the Blues forward beat his marker, cut inside, and shot – although, the goalkeeper stopped the effort at the near post.

A corner for Long Eaton followed the save; however, Grantham caught the Blues out with another quick counter down the left, which led to the visitor’s fourth of the match.

Riley Phillips, Alans Voskresenskis, and Isaak Hibbert were introduced in the final phase of the match as Long Eaton attempted to stage a comeback.

Bache slid the ball through for Phillips down the right, but the angle was too tight for any shot to pose a true threat and the visiting keeper made yet another save.

Some great link-up play between Bache and Voskresenskis created an opportunity down the left, Bache cut the ball across for a Sandhu snapshot, but The Gingerbread’s keeper managed to palm the shot over the bar.

In the final couple of minutes Bache found a consolation goal for Long Eaton, as he slotted the ball into the bottom right corner with an effort from the edge of the area.