It may well be April, but winter was evidently trying to cling on a little longer as Linslade Galaxy U11 Spartak travelled to face Dunstable Town Youth U11 Jaguars in chilly conditions, especially when the sun went in!

The home team, in their blue and white hooped kits, had no substitutes. However, throughout the match they looked very dangerous, especially on the counter attack, worked really hard for each other and battled for those 50-50s. This meant that Spartak also had to work extremely hard and it made for an entertaining game, with action at both ends, particularly in the first half, though Galaxy did have much more of the possession and chances in the second half.

It would be fair to say that Spartak were not at their absolute best today, particularly in not releasing the ball quickly enough, but the effort was there for all to see. Christopher in goal looked assured and demonstrated his talents in distribution and match awareness. Indeed it was Christopher's kick up field that Rosie ran onto, before cutting through to smash the ball above the keeper and into the back of the net for Galaxy's second goal.

In defence Niall, Elliot and Joseph had to get in some crucial tackles as Dunstable had some skillful and pacy players up front. Stan, Huey, Jack I and Dylan were the engines of the team, pushing forward and also having to cover back at times. Spartak's first goal was the result of great link up play in midfield with Dylan driving into the box and firing a shot that the home keeper got a hand to, but which he could not prevent from just going the right side of the post from a Galaxy perspective.

Up front Oliver, Rosie and Matthew showed that they had pace to burn themselves and on several occasions managed to run down the wing with the ball and whip in a dangerous cross. Both Matthew and Olly will be disappointed that they didn't score more goals for Spartak when they were put through with lovely diagonal passes. However, Matthew more than made up for that with a brilliant long-range effort that looped over the Dunstable keeper for Spartak's third goal.

This week Coach Steve awarded the Gartec player of the match award to Rosie and Matthew. Rosie was back to her absolute best and made a real difference when she came on. Both Rosie and Matthew scored fantastic goals and were the well-deserved recipients of the award this week.