On Sunday the 13th of November, Merstham U18’s, A side including Kinetic Academy players, travelled to Yeovil town to face the league two’s Academy side in the 2nd round of the FA Youth Cup.
With some impressive victories over Maidestone United (2-1), Leatherhead (7-1), Lewes (3-0), Ebbsfleet United (4-0) and a 1st round win against Folkestone Invicta (4-1) in the early stages of the competition, Kinetic had a confident spring in their step as they walked on to Huish Park to challenge Yeovil Town FC U18’s on Monday the 14th.
A nervy first ten minutes resulted in a defensive mistake from Merstham, leading to an early Yeovil goal. However the boys, once settled in to their game and the occasion, held the majority of possession for the rest of the first half, creating plenty of chances but struggled to capitalise on their opportunities. The first 45 ended with Merstham trailing by one goal to nil.
In the second half Merstham continued to control the game with long periods of possession with many good phases of play. Throwing everything at Yeovil in the last 10 mintues, Merstham made an error from a throw-in which was capitalised on by the Yeovil striker making it 2-0 with no time left to revive the dream.
Merstham’s run in the competition exceeded all expectations and Kinetic staff are extremely proud of the boys for what they achieved. In a game where the result could have gone either way, the boys were devastated to go out of the competition, however a long list of positives can be taken from this experience and they will undoubtedly come back bigger and stronger.