East Leigh U12 Ninjas opened their first competitive campaign with a win against a big, physical Runcorn side who didn't make life easy.

Ninjas started the brighter of the two teams using their technical ability and extra pace to their advantage carving out a number of early chances which were either saved by the keeper or put agonisingly wide.

Eventually the continued pressure resulted in a free kick just outside the box. Forward Jakey stepped up confidently and smashed the ball over the keepers head to give Ninjas the lead.

A couple of changes were made at the quarter way point and oncoming forward Harrison found himself through 1v1 with the keeper after a sublime through ball from Blake. With his first touch of the game H made it two with a cool left foot finish.

Runcorn found another gear however and started to carve out a few chances themselves before a free kick was awarded to them around 25 yards out. The Saxons player smashed the ball goalwards and while Brandon got his hands to the ball the power of the shot was too much and the ball trickled over the line.

Runcorn levelled the game before halftime, a well worked corner side footed in from around 8 yards out.

The second half started as the first finished with Runcorn in the ascendancy and they squandered a few early chances, Ninjas however clawed their way back into the game and started to play with more and more confidence. Just after the 45 min mark the ball came forward into Tommy who quickly worked the ball into Jakey who in turn played a sublime first touch through ball to Ben. Still with work to do Ben took one touch to compose himself and placed the ball low and hard into the far corner finding the inside of the far post before the ball went over the line as Ninjas retook the lead.

Ninjas continued to press home the advantage and the pace of the game, as well as the heat, started to tell with Saxons starting to look very lethargic. Another great bit of football resulted in Tommy having the ball deep in the opposition corner. He carried the ball across into the box and put a lovely cross in which bamboozled the whole defence and found Harrison waiting to side foot the ball home.

Ninjas kept control of the game for the final few minutes to see the game out.

A great performance to start the season with a win that sees them go joint top.

Final result

NINJAS 4
RUNCORN 2

GOALS

JAKEY
HARRISON X 2
BEN

OMOM - JAKEY
MMOM - TOMMY