Kidlington Youth 4 - 1 Oxford Blackbirds. U11 A League (From Oxford Mail)

Kidlington Youth 4 - 1 Oxford Blackbirds. U11 A League

10:35am Monday 12th March 2012 in Boys' League By Dale Tranter

Blackbirds pay the penalty as touches of class see Kidlington home.

A few moments of class enabled Kidlington to see off Oxford Blackbirds in a dour game at Evans Lane. The resilient visitors, with Jay Wild in fine form in goal, frustrated Kidlington for long periods and with flowing football at a premium the home team did not make the game safe until the latter stages.

The first 15 minutes were goalless, with Kidlington having most of the possession, but Blackbirds going closest after a corner went across Kidlington's goal area. The home team eventually broke through when striker Aarron Rowland was up-ended in the box. He picked himself up to expertly dispatch the spot kick into the corner, although Wild guessed correctly and almost got a hand to it.

Blackbirds were not done yet however, and found an equaliser before half time. A big clearance found space behind the home defence and Heath Cockburn raced through to equalise. Despite a couple of good runs from impressive home midfielder Judahne Medley, Kidlington could not make their possession tell and the score was still 1-1 at half time.

Blackbirds still offered stout resistance after the break, but three moments of brilliance won it for the home team. First, Aarron Rowland found space behind the Blackbirds defence and brilliantly chipped the advancing Wild to restore Kidlington's lead. Then Jamie Slevin lost his marker to power home a great header from a Ben Stewart corner. Finally Luca Sykes capped a hard-working performance with an excellent solo goal.

Blackbirds fought to the end however, and an indication of the threat they carried was that Kidlington's busiest and best (in this writer's opinion) player overall was centre-back Archie Littlewood, who was their saviour as 'last man' on a number of occasions.