Big victory - Southend United beat Boreham Wood at Garon Park
(Image: ROB CRAVEN)
Southend United FC
Football
Sport.
JACK Stone scored a hat-trick as Southend United's under 19 side maintained their pursuit of a top three finish in the National League U19 Alliance Academy South Division with a 4-0 win over Boreham Wood.
Stone scored twice in the first half and added a third four minutes into the second period, by which time Alfie Humphrey had also worked his way onto the scoresheet, to take his personal tally to 21 for Blues U19s in the current campaign.
The victory was a 10th of the season for Danny Heath’s teenage charges.
And Heath was keen to emphasise the all-round contribution made by Stone, who is currently dual-registered with Isthmian League North Division club Maldon & Tiptree.
“I thought Stoney did really well,” he declared.
“A part of his game that he’s really developed throughout the course of the season is the work he does for the team both in and out of possession.
"When the ball goes into him, he has the ability to look after it, which allows the team to get up the pitch and attack from there.”
“His work out of possession was something we spoke to him about at the end of last season because it was an area of his game that could be improved, but you could see today that he was chasing balls down and he doesn’t allow the defenders any time to be comfortable in possession.”
“He’s showing plenty of positives to his game other than scoring goals, because it’s nice to score goals, but you also have to help the team and affect the game in other areas, and he’s having a really good season."
Stone was a menace to the Boreham Wood defence throughout the fixture, and he could have tested goalkeeper Darius Onacoschi as early as the second minute, only for defender James Kosky to muscle the forward off the ball.
Sixty seconds later, Nathan Woodley glided through midfield before arrowing a shot from 25 yards into the visiting custodian’s gloves.
The Shrimpers, who were unchanged from the team that defeated Welling United last week, continued to exert pressure on their opponents with the backing of a strong wind, and Stone volleyed narrowly wide in the seventh minute after being located by Olu Shobowale’s swinging delivery.
However, with only 11 minutes on the clock, Southend finally took the lead.
Shobowale’s right-wing corner was cleared, but Woodley forced a mistake and Jackson seized possession on the edge of the penalty area before sending Stone clear with a measured slide-rule pass, with the front man coolly beating Onacoschi to convert.
Further chances materialised quickly, with Shobowale’s fierce attempt spilled by Onacoschi, who managed to smother Joe Poxon’s follow-up before finally grabbing hold of the ball when Alfie Humphrey thumped goalwards after a quarter-of-an-hour.
Within seconds Stone had been located by a long ball and attempted to lob the goalkeeper, who read his intentions and dropped back to save on the goal-line, before a ferocious effort from Stone was charged down by Boreham Wood skipper Miller Arm.
Southend were working impressively as a unit, suffocating their opponents and not allowing them any prospect of breaching the halfway line until they managed to break free in the 31st minute, when Joshua Barrett saved smartly at the near post from Hector Ikaka.
Play remained concentrated at the opposite end, though, and Jackson’s right-wing cross almost caught out Onacoschi, bouncing back off the outside of the right-hand post, before Woodley tested the gloveman from distance again in the 32nd minute despite the visitors initially managing to clear a right-wing cross.
The important second goal arrived six minutes before half-time following excellent combination play by Jackson and Mitchell Ward on the left touchline. Jackson eventually swung the ball deep to the far post, where Stone arrived to imperiously plant his header into the bottom left-hand corner of the net.
Blues could have moved even further clear before the interval, but Stone was denied a first-half hat-trick when he nodded a Jackson free-kick against the right-hand post and then snatched at the rebound to shoot wide.
Onacoschi also had to save from Ward when he was put through by Poxon in stoppage time before the half-time whistle sounded.
Any thoughts that Southend would be hampered by playing into the wind in the second half, or that their intensity may drop, were quashed within two minutes of the restart.
Jackson played a short free-kick to Ward, who used his right foot to curl the ball into the penalty area.
Poxon’s attempts to touch the delivery on wrongfooted Onacoschi, who was powerless to stop Humphrey from firing in the rebound when the ball bounced back off the post.
Only two more minutes had passed when the Shrimpers added their fourth of the afternoon.
Poxon started the move on the left from Ward’s throw and the ball then moved through Teddy Woolland, Humphrey and Stone before Humphrey released George Pulham on the overlap.
He danced past a defender and, when his shot was repelled by Onacoschi, Stone completed his hat-trick by lifting the ball into the top left-hand corner.
Jackson twice went close from the edge of the penalty area after being teed up by Stone and Pulham before Poxon sent a half-volley against the crossbar from the midfielder’s 58th-minute set-piece.
Stone’s last act was to hook narrowly wide from Shobowale’s deep corner on the hour mark before he was withdrawn to warm applause from team-mates and spectators alike.
Barrett denied Ikaka again on 63 minutes before Blues hit the woodwork for a third time when Poxon lifted the ball over Onacoschi but against the crossbar following a Shobowale free-kick.
Ward saw his left-footed finish deflected wide after receiving the ball from substitute Zevieyan Makangu on the overlap on 70 minutes, and Poxon’s curling attempt then drew a full-length stop from Onacoschi.
There were welcome returns from injury for Thato Molefi and Freddie Miller during the final ten minutes, with Obi Okafor sending three attempts narrowly wide and Jared Nana Asare testing Onacoschi during this period.
And, in the final minute, Barrett ensured he would keep a second successive clean sheet by thwarting Keanu Flemming, but by then the three points had been comfortably secured.
Southend United U19s: Joshua Barrett, Teddy Woolland, Mitchell Ward, Joshua Jackson, Julius Nwike (Thato Molefi 80), Olu Shobowale, George Pulham, Alfie Humphrey (Freddie Miller 80), Jack Stone (Obi Okafor 61), Nathan Woodley (Zevieyan Makangu 61), Joe Poxon (Jared Nana Asare 75).
