IH Manchester Football Academy – 2
Stockport County 3rds – 0
Date: Monday 22nd September 2023
Venue: Home
Competition: Inter College league
IH Manchester football academy scorers: Amir Zangouei (2)
The IHM Football Academy kicked off the season with a great home win at Ten Acres Lane.
On what was a very wet and windy Friday afternoon in Manchester, the home side struggled to get to grips with the conditions early on. The visitors seemed more tuned into the game, pressuring the IH team who struggled to keep possession.
With 20 minutes gone, the home side began to grow in confidence and settled into their new roles in the side; lining up in a 4-4-3 formation which they had had only a week to get used to. As confidence continued to grow, the home side created a few chances, breaking the visitors’ lines with through-balls.
Just before the half-hour mark, Amir Zangouei was put through 1 v 1 against Stockport’s number 1 and calmly slotted home for the opening goal of the game!
At the break the home side went in 1-0 up and looking the most likely to add to their tally in the second half.
The second half started much brighter for IHM, with promising movement in the middle of the park, creating space and quickly getting the ball out wide for crosses into the box to create chances.
Midway through the second half, Amir doubled the home sides lead with a great goal following a through ball from EFL student, Simon. The international lads then saw the game out well with a disciplined performance for the final 15 minutes to start the season with a win and a clean sheet.
Head of Football Sam said:
“That was a great start for the lads. We had a shakey few minutes at the beginning of the game whilst the lads got used to the conditions, but then we quickly settled.
It was great that they soon looked comfortable with the set-up of the game, something we’ve not had a lot of time to work on, we can build on that. A real positive start.
They are going to have to get used to those type of conditions and really start a game strong, we won’t always get away with those slow starts, but to say that was the first taste of football in Manchester for some of those, it was great to see how they adapted.”
Mohammed Beyond was awarded the IHM “Player of the Match”, following a consistent and strong performance.
It’s now back to training for the lads and preparation for next week’s league game and try to maintain a winning start to the season.
