Under 18's in county final
08 February 2010

Old Blackburnian Lammacks 1-7 Town  
Furness Building Society -
Under 18 Youth Cup
Sunday 7th February

By Mark Bowley

Fleetwood Town Under18s have booked their place in the Lancashire Football Association Cup Final with a very impressive win against last seasons runners up Old Blackburnian Lammacks.

Over 75 team’s from across the county entered the competition but it’s the young guns from Fleetwood who will meet Manchester Pennington at the County Ground Leyland on a date to be arranged.

From the kick off Fleetwood were determined to stamp their authority on the game and dictate play. Josh Few (pic) and Kyle Bennett were instrumental in the centre of midfield winning all the tackles and then distributing the ball to the excellent striker partnership of Mark France and Scott Thompson.  It wasn’t long for Fleetwood to force the opener when the Blackburn Keeper, who had an excellent game, unfortunately fumbled a Town cross and France headed the ball home.

With Fleetwood on the front foot and playing some delightful football Ryan Tanzer, who had a superb game, finished off an excellent move that even had the home support clapping. It was Tanzer the provider for the third when he found Few with a great ball and the midfielder danced round the keeper to slot the ball home leaving the Blackburn players stunned.

Credit to Blackburn they began to see more of the ball before the break and the Town keeper O'Boyle had to be at his best to deny Blackburn a way back.

Three nil at the break and the Town management were delighted with the performance and the attitude of the players. However they warned the players of being too confident and immediately after the restart Blackburn had their best spell and managed to score themselves to put Town under pressure.

Jordan Holmes and Andy Bartholomew at the centre of defence soon gained control again and Town raised their game with another four, superbly worked goals that put them into the final.

At the conclusion of the game a delighted Mick Sumner said “Our players were different class today. Each one of them put in 100% effort and we deserved our victory but the job is only half done we must now go on and win it. Man of the match went to Josh Few today who was exceptional but all the lads should be proud of what Fleetwood Town have achieved today.”

Final opposition Pennington are from Atherton and play in the South Lancashire Counties U18 League.  The Manchester outfit overcame Aspull 2–0 in the other semi-final on 24 January.


MAN OF MATCH Josh Few (pic)

Town Scorers France (2) Few (2) Tanzer (1) Thompson (1) OG (1)