Roffey Robins Atletico under-12s stun Broadbridge Heath Bears with smash-and-grab win

Goalkeeper Theo Botevyle set Atletico up for victory with a stunning performance which Romario Moratalla capitalised on with a second half hat-trick.

Bears dominated the first half as they monopolised possession and subjected the Atletico defence to wave after wave of attack.

Defenders Jack Dann, Dan Klamm and Fin Ledingham were solid although Botevyle was needed to maintain the clean sheet.

He pulled off a series of saves, tipping the ball onto the woodwork on four occasions, with more stunning glovesmanship on top of that as he thwarted everything the Bears attack could throw at him.

The second half started in the same vein, as Botevyle pulled off two more great saves in the opening minutes. From the second save, the ball reached Euan Gulliver on the right wing who bustled forward and crossed to Moratalla who buried the ball into the net to give Atletico an undeserved lead.

That goal knocked the stuffing out of the Bears as Atletico took their turn to dominate. Moratalla quickly added a second with a neatly taken solo effort.

Atletico started to pass the ball well. Klamm in defence played some wonderful passes to team mates. Josh Gibson provided solidity and desire on the left wing with Lucas Byrne tenacious in the right back position. Joshua Bellamy’s pace in midfield helped the ball to move forward alongside the solid Luca Harris.

From an Atletico corner, Henry Dinsdale lobbed the ball across the goal to find Gulliver who slotted the ball home at the far post, before Moratalla earned his hat-trick with another solo effort.

Manager Ricardo Moratalla said: “What a game. We could have been 4-0 down at half-time and had no complaints but Theo played an outstanding game of football and kept us in the match.

"That Romario was able to score a second half hat trick was entirely down to Theo’s fantastic performance.

"I’m proud of the whole team today. Every single one of them stood up in the face of adversity and then benefited from that in the second half “