Meadow Youth posed a real threat in the opening minutes with Kacper Banas making a brave save from close range. Heybridge slow to start began passing the ball nicely with Jack Whittaker and Oli Baker again combining well in defence spraying good balls out to the midfield of Toby Hume and Louis Barrell. The breakthrough came on 11 minutes with a deflected shot being palmed away with Henry Freeland on hand to smash the ball in 1 – 0 Heybridge. Meadow Youth were not giving up easily and were back on level terms with 5 minutes 1 – 1. Louis Barrell with work to do showed good skill and hit one from the angle which sailed high into the roof of the net just before half time 2 – 1 Heybridge.

The second half got underway with Meadow Youth scoring inside the first 5 minutes 2 – 2. Panthers again played some nice football but seemingly were found wanting in the final third with some good play between the forwards and midfield but just not applying the killer pass. Finally Heybridge managed to break down the Meadow Youth defence with Henry Freeland flashing a shot across the front of goal with Louis Barrell finishing the same move but flushing the ball into the bottom right hand corner. The game played out and Meadow Youth could have nicked the draw if Kacper Banas wasn’t on hand to make a cracking right handed save to earn Panthers the win.

Man of the Match

Louis Barrell