Barking & Dagenham 2-3 Basildon
BARKING & DAGENHAM U11 WERE made to work hard in this enthralling representative match against Basildon.
The opening ten minutes produced slick passing and interplay with Gabriel De Sa and Brandon Jones linking well on the right.
Basildon were equally proficient and Emilis Lenkevicius was always busy in goal for the home side. Airidas Golambeckis and Frankie Hills proved to be a fine defensive double act to keep the visitors at bay.
On the left, Lewis Skam slotted the ball to Shay Scott, whose speed on the wing proved a problem for the visitors. His clever cross met Chinaza Nwosu who unleashed a thunderbolt shot which went narrowly wide.
Brave
This unnerved the visitors who momentarily lost their way, resulting in a defender helping the ball into his own net.
Basildon were now a goal down but quickly began to turn the tide. Despite brave goalkeeping by Sion Nurse, he could do little to resist two well taken goals.
A flowing move from Vinnie Tidd and Louie Hart found gaps in the opposition defence and David Nkrumah seized his opportunity to cheekily chip the ball over the advancing keeper to score.
A floating corner from Scott was superbly met by John Bartram-Richards, whose excellent header just failed to find the target.
No Avail
Tobi Akinyimika later set up chances to no avail for Barking & Dagenham to score a winning goal.
The to and fro nature of the match now found Basildon pushing forward and perhaps more determined to go home with a victory. A final onslaught from the away team did indeed pay dividends as they capitalised on a moment of indecisive play to score the winner.
Their jubilation was a reflection of how close the match was. It was without doubt a worthy display from both teams and a good advert for district football.
Barking & Dagenham: Da Sa, Jones, Lenkevicius, Golambeckis, Hills, Skam, Nwosu, Nurse, Tidd, Hart, Bartram-Richards, Scott, Nkrumah, Akinyimika