Images of the Wood Under 18s in action Kindly supplied by Dylan Somel

Walsall Wood Under 18s Manager Dylan Somel has sent in some great reports from recent matches (I suspect the wonderful, dedicated hand of Simon Evans at work there) which have seen the youth team following in the footsteps of the seniors and topping the league – with just two matches to go, a win in their Monday away match at Feckenham will see them win their league.

I, and of course everyone at the blog and the whole Wood faithful are behind Dylan and the lads and I wish them all the very best of luck. Go thrash them, lads! You’re doing Walsall Wood proud.

For future reference, it’s worth following along with mach commentaries on Twatter: Usually one of the club official account @WalsallWoodFC here, or @Wood18s here or Simon Evans himself @Sy968 here are doing excellent coverage during matches. Thanks, chaps!

Dylan wrote:

Walsall Wood Under 18s play their penultimate game of the season on Bank Holiday Monday night (7th May 2018). It sees them face Feckenham away,  knowing that a win would secure winning the league. A recent win against Tividale on Friday 4th May was their second win in three days after overcoming a tough Barnsley test at the ML Safety Stadium, Oak Park..

Walsall Wood Under 18s 2 v 1 Barnsley WMA
Wednesday 2nd May 

A very nervy start again for the Walsall Wood 18s saw them go in at half time 1-0 down after missing a hatful of chances. Into the second, the Wood boys piled the pressure onto Barnsley’s defence who had defended brilliantly up until Ben Easthope scored from 35 yards to stick the ball into the Bill Shaw’s end goal.

What shortly followed was nothing short of madness, after a corner the ball dropped to Ben, again 20 yards out. It was another fine striker which found the top corner again.

Tividale 0 v WalsalL Wood Under 18s
Friday 4th May 2018

The Wood boys finished the week Away at Tividale, The Beeches ground.

With a much better start from the Reds, Declan Somel was able to push one home jus before the half time whistle.

A tense second half saw the lads hold out for a 1-0 win. Resilient defending again and John Newey’s third clean sheet in 4 games.

Wrens Nest 0 v 4 Walsall Wood Under 18s
Monday 23rd April 2018

In what was tenative start from the Wood boys, Wrens Nest enjoyed a lot of the early play. The Wood were rewarded a goal from a set piece, Declan Somel with the shot, Marcel Bridgen-Insular with the two touch finish. One to set and to tuck away to score.

Within three minutes of the Second Half beginning, Marcel helped himself to another goal early on, damaging Wrens Nests chances of a comeback. Wrens Nest couldn’t force any play in the middle of the Park. Wood managed to take advantage of this with some great individual goals late on from Ben Easthope and Declan Somel to ensure the young Woodmen take all three points back to the Wood with them.

A good all round team performance and attitude shown.

Stafford Rangers 0 v 2 Walsall Wood Under 18s 
Thursday 19th April 2018

Game started with Walsall Wood and saw very few chances early on until Declan Somel hitting the cross bar 10 mins in. As the half went Wood grew more and more into the game. Marcel Bridges – causing all sorts of problems at the back for Rangers. In the 35th minute he was brought down in the area only for the referee to give a corner. However the Wood carried on, and were rewarded minutes before half time with a penalty Marcel brought down and Ben Easthope dispatched the penalty.

Stafford second half came out urgently looking for that equaliser. After a few early second half exchanges, with half hour left Marcel was put through on goal by Declan and he was able to finish the ball in the bottom right corner to see Wood two up with half an hour left. John Newey with a tremendous performance in goal which helped see the lads through a few nervy last minutes

Walsall Wood FC have a great community and some excellent teams – why not pop down and find out what they’re all about? For the good of The Wood!