Browny (2), Finlay (2), Jozef (2), Jenson (1), Rudy (1), Matt (1)
The League didn’t give us a fixture this week, so we organised a re-match against Elland Tigers. We had played them in what was our best pre-season performance, gaining victory in a close fought 4-3 match. It was only six weeks ago, but the boys had had 17 football sessions since then and went into the match keen and confident of showing some improvement.
The long grass we encountered at Elland, matched that of Little Wembley in Saturday’s training, so the boys adapted well, making punchier passes. From the start we dominated, the Elland goalkeeper made several good saves, a dozen shots were blocked by brave defenders and numerous corners were stoically cleared. Eventually, on 22 minutes Browny poked a scrambled goal home from 2 yards, a few minutes later Jenson got a similar poacher’s goal. The best goal of the half followed a minute later when Jozef played a smart through ball to Browny, who calmly advanced and slotted it in the bottom corner.
3-0 at Half Time. We needed the boys to move the ball more quickly, taking advantage of the long grass to play deeper through balls and into the diagonals. The lads made a commitment to keeping the 2nd clean sheet of the season and within the first ten minutes we had doubled the lead with goals from Rudy, Finlay and Matt.
The 7th goal was the best of the half, Reuben played the early deep through ball we’d demanded. Jozef timed his run to perfection and finished with speed and style. Jozef got his second with a mazy individual run and Finlay scored the last to make it 9-0.
We have made great progress to produce this kind of result against a previously equally matched team. One of the boys told me he was “really proud of his performance today”. I think they all should feel this.
(U11 Red)
