SWIFTS U14s first game after the Christmas break saw them take on bottom side Orleton and cruise to a comfortable victory.

LEDBURY SWIFTS U14s 14, ORLETON U14s 1

Regular keeper Dave Reynolds, who could be out for up to six weeks after an accident at home, had to be replaced by Elliott Parsons. He must have wondered what he let himself in for when with only three minutes gone his first touch of the ball was to take it out of the net when a sliced clearance fell to the Orleton striker, who lobbed the ball into the far corner.

From then on as the scoreline suggests it was all one-way traffic, as Swifts laid siege to the Orleton goal. Luke Perry and Roy Powell were combining well down the left side, and Sam Topham and Sam Crichard were once again prominent in Swifts' attacks. Goals came at regular intervals from Topham (two), Adam Davis, Matthew O'Niel and Roy Powell to give Swifts a 5-1 half-time lead.

Swifts continued to dominate after the break and in their first attack Topham completed his hat-trick. Joe Markiewicz seemed determined to score his first goal for the club when on numerous occasions he broke from defence, only to see two great strikes go flashing past the post. Meanwhile Parsons in the Swifts' goal was given his moment of glory when Swifts were awarded a penalty, but alas he shot straight at the keeper. The scoring in the second-half was completed by O'Niel (three), Crichard, Topham, David, Tom Powell and an own goal.

Swifts, who are sponsored by Three Counties Fisheries, have a tougher game on Sunday when they travel to play Weston-under-Penyard, players to meet at 9.15am.

HINTON U11s 4, LEDBURY SWIFTS U11s 1

LEDBURY Swifts U-11s kicked off the year by travelling to take on Hinton, not having played a match for a month.

The rustiness soon showed as they fell behind in the second minute, when a cross was controlled at the far post and turned in after the Hinton striker easily went round the defender. Swifts made little headway against a solid defence, with the main threat coming from Matthew Rooke on the right. Good passing between Rooke and Joe Crichard gave Crichard a shooting opportunity, but the defender covered well to clear the ball. After 15 minutes, Swifts fell further behind when David Nash was unlucky to be judged to have tripped a Hinton attacker in the box, and the resulting penalty was struck high past Patrick Merryman.

Swifts forced two corners late in the half, but poor delivery resulted in easy clearances at the near post.

The second-half started with Swifts battling hard, but Hinton had the majority of the play and were soon 3-0 up when a poor goal-kick was put back over Merryman's head from over 30 yards. Crichard was just off target from a James Godsall through-ball, as Ledbury looked for some consolation, but Hinton made it 4-0 when a header from a corner was cleared off the line but the rebound was bundled home.

Ledbury still fought on and made it 4-1 with the best goal of the game six minutes from time. At last a corner-kick was struck with some purpose, and as it was cleared to the edge of the box, man-of-the-match Michael Arlott struck a curling shot into the top corner from the edge of the area.

Ledbury now urgently need a couple of wins to the lift them into the top half of the table for the end-of-season mini-league.

LEDBURY SWIFTS U10S 13 , WEOBLEY COLTS 0

LEDBURY Swifts started the second half of the season with a home league fixture against Weobley Colts on Saturday and raced to a record win.

The Swifts started the game in their normal exuberant fashion and enjoyed a lot of early initial possession. It was particularly pleasing to see the good passing play had been taken from the training field into a live match. One of these early passing moves, initiated by Kieron Danter, led to a fine cross from Ben Butler which in turn was met with a firm goal scoring shot by Dan Sewell. This was quickly followed by a second goal for the Swifts when Rob Phillips scored with a low left- footed drive from the edge of the penalty area after some further inventive passing down the left.

As the mid point in the first-half approached, Charlie McCarthy and Jack Pritchard joined the action and Jack quickly increased the Swifts lead to three goals when he followed up a long range shot from Ben Butler to force the ball past the diving Weobley keeper and into the back of the net. In the remaining minutes of the first-half the Swifts went close a number of times with many long range shots just clearing the Weobley cross bar. However, the pressure eventually told and both Ben Butler and Kieron Danter scored with long range shots to give the Swifts a 6-0 half-time lead.

In the second-half, the Swifts demonstrated their growing maturity as they kept their passing game going and sought to improve their league goal difference. Rob Phillips quickly notched up his second goal of the match with another fine left foot shot and Jack Pritchard also lashed the ball home from a tight angle. The Swifts superiority was also demonstrated by the number of corners that they won and it was great to see Dan Sewell score with a clean header after a well-taken corner by Kieron Danter.

As the mid-point in the second-half approached, William Notley scored his first league goal of the campaign after having played an excellent first-half defensive role and Charlie McCarthy opened his account with a trademark shot from outside the penalty area. Even with a 10-goal lead in the bank the Swifts continued to press forward in search of more goals and Rob Phillips, Daniel Sewell and Jack Pritchard all completed their hat-tricks in the closing minutes.

Credit must go to Weobley Colts who played the game in tremendous spirit right up to the final whistle despite a 13-goal deficit. Indeed the Colts enjoyed their best period of the game in the final quarter and if it had not been for the ever present defensive alertness of James Charlesworth and some timely interceptions from Jonathon Gooch in the Swifts goal, the Swifts would not have kept a clean sheet.

The Swifts, sponsored by Bradford Building Supplies, play their next game away tomorrow (Saturday) against Wellington in the cup.

FC PHOENIX U9s 2, LEDBURY SWIFTS U9s 2

LEDBURY Swifts U9s played their first game of 2006 and came away with a creditable draw against a strong FC Phoenix side.

Ledbury started the match the brighter and took the lead after five minutes when Ben Miller was brought down in the penalty box. He picked himself up to score from the penalty spot.

Phoenix equalised just before half-time from a corner after Swifts failed to clear their lines.

Phoenix started the second-half the stronger and took the lead after 25 minutes when the unfortunate Scott Brown put through his own net. Phoenix then had several clear cut chances to win the game but wasted them. Swifts came back into the game and equalised when a superb through ball from Phillip Davis sent Ben Miller clean through to equalise.

Swifts nearly took all three points late on when Tom Skittery had a shot well saved by the Phoenix keeper.

Tomorrow (Saturday) Swifts are at home to Lads Club. All players to meet at Rugby Club at 10am.