Passion returns as 2nd XI find their form

• York 2nds 2
• Liverpool 2nds 0

Beating a University that can boast as many students as Liverpool is always a tricky task, but York made it look easy, proving the shift to the new 3–5–2 formation an instant hit.

Captain Remington said: “We dominated the centre of midfield. Liverpool played a 4–4–2 and really they didn’t have a snap at goal at all, and we could have run away with that 4 or 5 nill had we taken our chances.”

Having missed a sitter earlier, Murphy responded well to grab his first goal of the season. “I’ll give him a round of applause because he had a quality game today," said Remington. "Hopefully he can carry on and get some more.” .

“We said we needed more passion, we needed to go into games with a different mentality. Everything changed, the whole attitude of the team seemed a lot better and a lot different.”

• York 2nds 4
• Newcastle 3rds 4

When the side met Newcastle 3rds earlier in the season, Newcastle spent most of the game playing with 10 men, and they arrived desperate to avenge that defeat last week. But they couldn’t have imagined the start they were to be gifted.

Mistakes from Goodricke duo Taylor and Lewis gave the away side two goals in the first five minutes. Yet still York were slow to respond, and before a quarter of an hour had passed they had conceded a third when failing to mark a man at the far post. Only a late knock down from Richards, which put Silson in, gave the team hope just before half time.

Coming out for the second half, one could have forgiven the home side for folding in face of the task facing them: playing now into a strong wind, against a side that were determined to hold onto their lead.

But instead Man of the Match Remington led his side to a terrific second half fightback, and but for a fluke goal they would have taken all the points. York pulled level when Silson was pulled down in the box and Swan converted the penalty, after Remington had scored a goal worthy of Match of the Day’s goal of the month competition. Outside the edge of the area, he spied the ‘keeper inching forward anticipating the cross, so he simply belted it into the near top corner.

At 3 – 3 York pushed on to win the game, and created chance after chance, but somehow fell behind after a Newcastle counter-attack. As Taylor came out to meet a one-on-one Tristan Holdsworth made a superb recovering tackle, only to kick the ball back onto the striker. The ball looped off the striker’s knee and agonisingly into the net.

Yet again York responded, creating several chances, until impromptu sub James Clarke finished a classy move to give the home side a share of the points.

The manner of the fightback left a bittersweet taste in the mouths of York’s 2nds. But for a few early mistakes they would have walked all over a poor Newcastle team.

After the match Remington said: “The second half was a brilliant display. A great fightback, lots of passion from the team. It’s just a shame it took the first three goals to give us a kick start.”

“On the day it was a fair result. But in terms of the quality of both sides York should be winning that 4 -0 every game easily.”

It is worth remembering that this 2nd XI was missing many of its stars for this BUSA clash. Worrall was absent, Murphy injured in the warm up, and Oomen, Oatridge and Sitkin were all on the sidelines. But Remi Remington refused to use the situation as an excuse.

“The team we had today should have beaten them easily. It doesn’t need a full strength squad to beat that team. Obviously if we had had a full strength squad it would have been easier, but we should have beaten them today without any problems whatsoever.”

So a good week tinged with slight disappointment for Remington’s side, who look to their next fixture as an opportunity to kick-start their BUSA campaign. Unfortunately they travel to top of the table Teeside 3rd XI, who have won all 7 BUSA fixtures so far.

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