Fylde coast youth football round-up: Youth League Christmas festival, Clifton Rangers buzzing, Blackpool Girls' cracking cup win

Some Blackpool and District Youth Football League fixtures were lost  to waterlogged pitches but the matches that went ahead produced a few surprises.
The Clifton Rangers Under-12 Wasps and Hornets are enjoying a superb seasonThe Clifton Rangers Under-12 Wasps and Hornets are enjoying a superb season
The Clifton Rangers Under-12 Wasps and Hornets are enjoying a superb season
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Fylde coast youth football review: Milestone match for St Annes Yellows, all the...

The players showed how they had developed over the last few months and gave their parents some great football to watch.

At U14s level, there was a hat-trick each for Jake Stokes, Warren Meek and Jacob Cleary as FC Rangers beat St Anne’s Diamonds, while Joshua Leach also scored.

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Regan Malone netted twice as Poulton Town drew with St Anne’s Yellows, dropping their first points of the season.

In the U15s’ competition AFC Blackpool played FC Rangers Blues in a tightly-contested match where AFC battled from the first whistle.

Blues’ strength showed in the end and they won with goals from Daniel Lydon, Finlay Best and Connor Holdroyd.

The points took Blues to joint top of the division with Squires Gate Reds, who have a game in hand on them.

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Despite Mario Craescu scoring a hat-trick and goals from Matthew Guy and Jake Wallace, FC Rangers lost at home in a tight match that could have gone either way.

Poulton FC scorers were Joe Medcalf, Nico Cobb and two each for Tom Gut and Charlie McNamee.

Poulton Town’s U18s got their first points, winning at home against FC Rangers.

Clifton Rangers Under-12 teams are really buzzing after their first competitive phase of action in the Poulton and District Primary League.

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The club’s U12 Hornets won the phase 1 premier league division with a perfect record of 10 wins out of 10.

And the U12 Wasps won the phase 1 championship division with 10 wins out of 11.

The club has enjoyed success at all age groups, winning titles at U13 and U14 and also challenging at U15, U16 and U18 levels. In the U7-11 age groups, Clifton also have teams competing each week across the Fylde coast.

U10 teams were cup and plate finalists in the Christmas competitions, while Clifton are also represented at U11 and U12 Christmas Cup finals day.

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The club is also proud to have girls’ teams in the PDPL in an effort to give more girls the chance to play football.

Blackpool FC Girls Under-14 defeated Wigan Athletic 5-3 in a thrilling Lancashire FA County Cup second round tie.

With Chan Delaney as captain, Blackpool came back from 2-1 down in the first half to sweep past Wigan thanks to a hat-trick from Siddall and a goal each from Grove and Lean.

They again played quality passing football in a tough fixture to reach the quarter-finals.

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YMCA’s Under-12s played their final group games inthe Poulton and District Primary League’s Christmas Cup competition.

Both YMCA teams were hit by players being unavailable and were well beaten at Poulton Farm in Thornton.

The Blacks were beaten 9-0 at St Annes Greens and the Oranges lost 4-0 away to Poulton Youth Reds.

The Blacks just had a basic nine players with no substitutes and understandably tired as the game wore on allowing a useful Greens outfit to score at regular intervals.

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The Oranges found themselves 3-0 behind at the interval against Poulton Reds and although they were more in the game in the second half they failed to break down their opponents’ solid defence.

Poulton then added a further goal to complete a deserved victory.