Despite the torrential rain last weekend, the Romsey Town Youth under 8 Pumas continued their positive start to the season with an entertaining and evenly-matched game against Sholing.

The game ebbed and flowed and saw five different Pumas share the goals.  They all worked really hard and played well as a team, with Player of the Match a close run thing but Olly came away with the award. They were all looking forward to a warm bath and are hoping for better weather next week!

In recognition of their fantastic first season last year, the boys were also recently invited to play against Premier League side Bournemouth's academy team in their new, state of the art training facility, which was an amazing experience for them all.

The under 8 Panthers went up against Southside Red Dragons for the first time ever.

Alex started as captain and led by example, hassling his opponents relentlessly, alongside Harry who provided a constant threat down the Romsey left. Ronnie and Zac prevented Southside from creating many clear chances by defending ferociously, whilst Ryan found his teammates with some excellent goal kicks. Alex went on to score and there were chances created at both ends in an even first quarter.

The second quarter saw the Panthers pounce again with Alex again dribbling fantastically and finishing well and Eli being brave. Some great defending from Logan and Reuben limited the Dragons to a handful of chances, whilst Ronnie made a series of saves when the Dragons did manage to get through.

Panthers Reuben, Ryan and Zac demonstrated some great passing and repeatedly tore through their opponents' press, but unfortunately failed to take the chances they had created.

Logan created chances from the position of GK with great vision and accuracy in his passing, whilst Eli also showed great composure under pressure turning away from multiple opponents to set up an attack.

In the final quarter, again chances were created at both ends in heavy rain and both teams worked extremely hard for each other.

A great performance from the Panthers, with the Dragons' coach stating that they are the best passing football team he has seen. Player of the Match was awarded to Ronnie for tough tackling, great defending and cat-like goalkeeping.