Kent Youth League Sunday 6th September
Under 13's - Cray Valley 3 - 2 Erith & Belvedere
Under 14's - Cray Valley 0 - 7 AFC Lewisham
Under 15's - Cray Valley 1 - 3 Maidstone United
Under 16's - Maidstone United A - A Cray Valley
Under 18's - Cray Valley 5 - 1 FC Elmstead

A mixed bag of results of the first day of the new Kent Youth League season.

Our Under 18's brushed aside the disappointment of their penalty shoot out defeat against Herne Bay in the FA Youth cup with an emphatic victory against FC Elmstead. A hat trick from Jayden Ogbuka and a brace from TJ Dros secured the 3 points.

Manager Aaron Minott was pleased with his sides debut in the KYL with a 3-2 home win against local rivals Erith & Belvedere in the Under 13's North Division. The scorers were Reuben Marriner, Franky Barnes and Harry Ellery. However, the Under 14's suffered a baptism of fire in the first match of the season. Having already gained a result against opponents AFC Lewisham is pre-season friendly, for some reason the side underperformed and they suffered a 0-7 defeat. Mario Campbell will want to put that result well and truly behind him next week.

The Under 15's went down valiantly against last season's League and Cup Champions Maidstone United. The 3-1 scoreline doesn't reflect how unlucky the boys were on the day. With the scores level at 1-1, the referee failed to award us with a blatant penalty and moments later the visitors went ahead. Midfielder Max Gillie scored our goal and the Stones third was literally the last kick of the match.

Our other fixture was unfortunately abandoned when one of our players Teddy Martin suffered a double fracture to his arm. With Maidstone United leading 1-0 against our Under 16's, with a very dubious penalty award, the referee made the right decision the abandon the game. Our best wishes go to Teddy who will now probably miss a large chunk of the season.

Elsewhere, our Selent and JPL teams played friendlies. Our Under 18's won their home match at Badgers by a cricket score and we had one very proud father when Archie Hemmings scored to secure a 1-1 draw for his manager Mark, in a hard fought game against Otford United.

Steve Chapman
Director of Youth Development
Cray Valley (PM) FC