Kent's Kids' get off to a winning start

Kent’s stars of the future travelled down to Devon on Friday and returned the following day with an impressive 4-1 victory in the first round of the FA County Youth Cup.

Despite the long journey the visitors started the brighter and nearly went ahead in the first minute.

Intelligent link up play saw Sam Callander go one on one with the keeper only for his effort to clip the top of the bar.

It merely delayed the inevitable, however, as in the 7th minute the impressive Callander picked himself up to score from the resulting penalty after he was fouled in the box.

At this stage the visitors were well on top and Adam Oxberry, Chris Kinnear and Callender both had chances to extend the lead.

However, it was centre back Jack Barry who got the second with a well placed header following a Nick Rich corner.

This may have been the signal for Kent’s under eighteens to go and make the game safe, but as their own tempo dropped the home side started to look dangerous for the only spell in the match.

They took advantage of this by pulling a goal back with 10 minutes of the half remaining and Kent were struggling to ensure they reached half time with the lead still intact.

Having weathered the early, expected second half storm Callander rounded the keeper after 50 minutes to knock the stuffing out of Devon, and following Rich’s excellent through pass he made the game safe and completed his hat trick on 62 minutes.

Managers Ian Docker and Bryan Bull were delighted, not only with the result, but also with the professionalism shown by the players, both on the pitch, and off of it on the two day trip. A difficult away tie at Cambridgeshire in the second round is the reward for the squad.

Kent: Stonebridge, Parkinson (Smalling), Ulph, Barry, Kettle, Brooke (Collins L), Brown (Collins J), Kinnear, Rich, Callander, Oxberry. Sub Ibrahim