Its Maidstone at home in the next round! (Thursday 3rd October)
by Colin Bowman
Our exciting and forward progressing U18 squad received some real Fa Youth Cup traction last evening when fending off a slow start at The Charles Ground, Deal. A full coach load of players, officials, fans, President Peter Miles and Vice Chairman John Goss set off at 3.30pm and victoriously returned around 1am.
Deal Town Fc are a new addition to the Isthmian South division and our 1st team will travel on 4th January 2025. Their U18s however are still in the Kent County environment. There was no sign of the difference in levels in the early stages as the hosts got off to a very fast start. We saw a lethargy in Hills passing and movement which could be put down to spending two hours on a coach. After just ten minutes Deal quickly broke into the penalty box the linesman stoutly waving his flag. He had spotted a hand ball inside the penalty box to which the ref awarded a penalty. Deal smashed home to give a large home crowd an early lift.
From that moment Hill suddenly found their rhythm and pace. It was a joy to watch as the ball was pinged around. On 20 mins Hill earned a corner. The winger put in a beautiful inswinger which cannoned off the bar. The resulting mele ended with a goal kick. Moments later our left wing back got to the byline and squared. Centre forward Luca Oliva was on hand to stab home at the near post to score the perfect poacher’s goal. Just moments later another excellent move down the left resulted in a dangerous cross. Oliva set 1st teamer Joe Overy who neatly rolled the ball home from 8 yards. A brilliant goal. By now Hill were an unstoppable force as Luca sweetly bent in his second and then Noah Hoffman hit a crisp left foot shot top corner giving the keeper no chance.
Hill marched off at HT four one to the good.
The story continued early in the 2nd half as 1st team fans favourite Noah Hoffman, turned his defender in the box and forced home a left footed drive into the near corner. That signalled changes in Hill personal as all five subs were given a chance to play. It left the team a little bit disjointed as Deal found some momentum. The contest was given fresh impetus when the hosts fired in their 2nd goal. On 70 mins a keeping error allowed them to steal another the score going to five three. However, all Hill nerves were settled as Grey scored the best goal of the night. He sped down the inside left, beat the last man and calmly slotted past a diving keeper the ball nudging off the far post for good measure. In a final flourish Luca Oliva thumped home a very much deserved hat trick and Luca added the cherry.
Coach Ross Johnson said, ‘while I was pleased with the result there was some things that I wasn’t happy with!’ He expanded ‘there has been some disruption with players going out on loan and not having a training session. That really showed itself early in the game today’ He added ‘ in the 2nd half though we demonstrated a true reflection of how good this squad is. There are some fantastic players and some of our football tonight was unbelievable!’ As to the next round he said, ‘I think the boys need a team who can really test them!’ Johnson has been in football for many years, and it was great to get thoughts on the long Mid-week coach trip ‘I have missed the mid-week coach trips, it doesn’t happen that often anymore. But the boys have enjoyed themselves and it’s a good learning experience!’
We caught up with Man of the Match Luca Oliva, ‘It was brilliant this evening and I enjoyed the match!’ He added ‘we have two brilliant centre forwards at the club in Dan Perry and Ben Pope and hopefully I can be scoring in the 1st team at some point’ As to the season ‘all of us want to win the Isthmian South Youth league that is our main objective but hopefully we can also go a long way in the youth cup’
Many thanks to all the supporters who made their way to Deal including joint owners David and Vicky. Also huge thanks to Sussex Coaches and driver Dave who provided an excellent service for the team.
