U18 CC SF Brockenhurst 3 Cobham Sports 1

26 March 2026

Thursday night football, what’s not to like?  U-18s in their league cup semifinal against Cobham Sports.  Obviously this isn’t my usual gig but if I’m reading the tables right, Cobham are going OK in the Premier Division, with Brock mid-table in Division One West, so the visitors probably started favourites for this…

A thoroughly entertaining game between two decent teams, both trying to play football and showing a lack of inhibition which maybe some Premier Division teams could learn from!  As a bonus, there were also four brilliant goals.  Maybe it helped that neither side was physically dominant, which put a premium on accuracy and skill, but this was one of the better games I’ve seen this season.  It didn’t start well for Brock, Cobham were sharper from the off and they had taken the lead inside 3 minutes, a nicely worked move and a cross from the byline headed in at the back post by Jimmy Fry: a fine goal.  Maybe the Badgers were slightly nervous playing in front of 151, which must be one of the bigger crowds most of these lads had experienced…  Brock settled but were still on the back foot… 13 minutes, Will Giles (recently seen coming on as a sub for the First team) picked the ball up near halfway and somehow slalomed his way past about six tackles, keeping control of the ball and then firing in at the near post from the edge of the box.  A glorious individual goal (celebrated with enthusiasm by your roving reporter, to the amusement of others who don’t normally see me quite so animated!).  That goal steadied the Badgers and a much more even contest broke out, some clever interplay from both sides but defences remaining largely well organised and on top… until 35 minutes, another superb goal – Elliot Wells, another who’s been seen with the Firsts lately, doing really well to gain possession of the ball and slide a pass down the wing, it appeared to be going long but somehow Giles reached it and put in a peach of a cross, headed home by Kobe Derrick, and Brock were in front.  No time to rest on their laurels: Max Rees for Cobham got clear down the left but blazed over the bar, and then in overtime the visitors had a succession of corners, one half-cleared to Fry whose shot was turned in by Lindenberg but he was – and to be fair, looked – well offside.  HT 2-1

All to play for, and Brock started the second half very strongly with some incisive passing and intelligent movement.  Derrick had an early shot deflected just wide for a corner… cleared for another corner… which cannoned off the post and was scrambled clear as far as Esteban Batista, 25 yards out, returned like a tracer bullet into the corner for 3-1.  He won’t ever hit a ball cleaner than that!  Did the Badgers relax a little?  Within a minute, Oliver Gomm was driving towards the Brock box, fouled by O'Mara – referee Farrer gave the free kick just outside the box, most of us in the stands weren’t so sure about this and thought he was probably inside.  To be fair, Alfie Farrer had a really good game with the whistle, so maybe he got that right too.  (My guess is we’ll be seeing him in the Wessex soon, it may not have been the hardest game to officiate but didn’t put a foot wrong.)  The free kick came to nothing and the young Badgers might even have pulled further clear, a brilliant move – Batista releasing Wells who burned off his defender and pulled the ball back to the edge of the box but Hutchings sliced his shot wide.  It would probably have been the goal of the game, and that’s against some serious competition!  Cobham continued to play football and they largely controlled possession in the last quarter, Brock started to sit deeper and were struggling to break out but they were defending well and largely restricting the visitors to shots from range.  Their best chance came from another clever move, Alfie O’Connell finding himself in the area and laying the ball off to Fry who should have hit the target rather than the trees behind the goal… and then with ten minutes to go, the closest the visitors came, a free kick which was headed against the bar, in the ensuing melee Fin Evans headed a shot off the line, and Brock managed to smuggle the ball away.  That was a chance which Cobham probably had to take, and the Badgers saw it through.  FT 3-1

What a superb advert for U-18 football this was.  I wasn’t sure what to expect; certainly not this much entertainment and quality from both teams.  Choosing a man of the match is invidious, and we could easily have stuck with “the whole team”, but that’s not how it works!  So I’m going to namecheck three of them.  Elliot Wells was excellent, tireless, tormenting his full back, always a danger.  Esteban Batista was outstanding: not just that goal, but a superb midfield performance, winning the ball back regularly, playing the right pass, always being in the right position – on another day he’d have been a shoo-in.  But Will Giles got the nod because, alongside an excellent display at full-back, he scored a sublime goal which changed the momentum of the game, and also provided a perfect assist.   He then got sin-binned in overtime, by which time the decision had already been made!  But every single one of these lads should hold their heads high; and those who didn’t come along, you missed a treat.  The final will be against Gosport Borough – top of the Premier – so that’s another tough one ahead, but for now let’s enjoy this one.  And, as a final note, my apologies if I’ve misidentified anyone, let me know and I’ll update it!