Charlton Athletic U18s midfielder Ralfi Hand spoke to Valley Gold Academy Notes after the recent 4-2 win at Swansea City.
The young central midfielder who can also play at centre half signed for the Addicks as an U17’s First-Year Scholar after being released from Gillingham where he had been for 9 years. Speaking about the win in Wales, he told Valley Gold:
“We come out against Swansea very strong, dominating the ball. Swansea struggled to get out of their own half, and they didn’t know how to deal with the threats we had all over the park. We scored 4 very good goals in the first half. The first from good hold up play from Miles Leaburn who rolled his defender and shot a composed finish past the keeper after 5 minutes. Our second was a volley from Ryan Huke from the second phase of a corner which slightly deflected meaning the keeper was rooted and the ball bounced in to make it 2-0 after just 15 minutes.
“Our third goal was the pick of the bunch, a lovely floating corner to the back post from Matt Dench was met by Mack Reilly who ran onto the ball to slot it past the keeper the first time on the volley and after 20 minutes.
“Swansea scored in the 28-minute to make the game 3-1, but only 3 minutes later Miles Leaburn scored again with a lovely flick around the goalkeeper from a flashed cross from Oliver Hobden to give us a 4-1 at half-time.
“We knew they would come out fast at us for the second half, and there was a fair share of chances from both teams but it took until the 80th minute for a breakthrough, this time for Swansea to make it 4-2. They then turned the game into more of a fight but we were comfortable with managing the game out and we continued to move the ball very well and exposed their backline which they were struggling to deal with before they began to get frustrated which played even more into our hands.”
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