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| Football U10A VII Team 'Blog' |
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U10A Squad: Max Hindley (c); Harry King (GK); Thomas Ogilvie; Seb Baldwin; William Brown; Max McCarthy; Jack Borthwick; Max Rickard Wednesday 5th October v Hoe Bridge (Home) Lost 1 - 4 Goal: Jack Borthwick On the face of it a better scoreline and we did compete for most of the game. A determination to shoot ourselves in the foot saw us conceed 3 very soft goals making the game harder than it needed to be. Typically we conceeded a goal within 2 minutes when indecisive defending saw us watch the ball roll passed the keeper. We equalised almost immediately with a well taken goal by Jack and I honestly thought we would go on and win. Instead the game became increasingly scrappy with players showing little composure too often fly-hacking the ball anywhere. Hoe Bridge took a deserved lead just before half-time. At half-time we talked again about patience in attack and defence and the need to keep posession of the ball and not give it away. Sadly the advice was not taken and with Hoe Bridge showign a greater desire to win the ball and withmore indifferent defending, a lack of concentration and poor communication, we conceeded twice more to lose 1-4. Well done to Harry in goal who had his best game of the season overall. We were so much better in practice and even in the warm up before the game. We must take this attitude into matches and start to play with greater energy and belief.
Wednesday 28th September v Hall Grove (Home) Lost 0 - 7 Another big loss but I think everyone tried their best - a better effort than last week. It did not help that we lost Seb before the game as we needed his strength and determination in defence. Hall Grove had some good footballers and they played with confidence happy in posession and looking for men in space. They scored a couple of great goals with some powerful shooting We tended to panic in posession and were not given time to play, again everything happened too quickly for us. We did not win many 50:50 balls but when we did we had a couple of chances with long range shots from Max H. We are improving slowly and I was pleased with William's effort today. I want you to listen carefully in practice and work to implement those ideas in games.
Wednesday 21st September v Yateley Manor (Away) Lost 1 - 9 Goal: Max Hindley I hoped we would build on our encouraging performance against Cranleigh but in the face of some good opposition we froze conceeding 4 goals in the first 6 minutes. Yateley were a physical team and given little protection by the referee we allowed them to bully us and dominate possession. When we did get the ball we were slow and needed to loook up for support and play the ball much earlier with greater accuracy and control. After conceeding 4 goals (including 2 own goals) we did improve and Max Hindley scored a great goal after some skillful dribbling and a powerful shot. Tom and Seb started to defend with greater determination and looked to clear the ball into the Yateley half. We competed better but Yateley still played with more composure and skill. Before half-time we shot ourselves in the foot allowing a goal directly from a corner before a sixth goal was handled over the line. We lost Jack in the second half with a muscle strain and we also lost any shape with the reorganisation. Yateley scored again with their first attack of the half but after that we competed much better until tiredness left us wide open for 2 late goals including a great free-kick frm 20m. out. 1 - 9 and a deserved Yateley win. We needed to concentrate bette andrtry to put the work we do in practice into the match. We also need to toughen up physically. Lets keep working. Happy Birthday Max
Saturday 17th September v Cranleigh (Home) Lost 1 - 6 Goal: Jack Borthwick Despite the disappointing scoreline this was a much improved performance and an enjoyable game to watch. After a week of practice the team had a better shape with players understanding their individual roles as well as looking to work as a team. If we had taken our chances and shown more concentration in defence the score could and should have been a lot closer. I was very pleased with the way we competed physically, especially Seb and Max M, showing a greater hunger to win the ball and keep posession. Cranleigh scored first in an even contest but Jack slotted a good finish to equalise almost immediately. The game ebbed backwards and forwards but it was Cranleigh who scored again to take a 1-2 half-time lead. We made a poor start to the second half as we started to chase the ball leaving players unmarked in the penalty area. We paid the price and conceeded 2 soft goals. 1 - 4. After this game opened up and both teams had chances. Cranleigh were more confident in front of goal taking their opportunties while we wasted ours. 1 - 6 in the end but a score that did not reflect how well we contributed to the game. We need to continue to improve especially in how we get back to support the defence and to sharpen our finishing - we need to be more Wayne Rooney than Fernando Torres!
Wednesday 7th September Training Match v Feltonfleet (Home) As those who watched will tell you we were clearly not ready to play against such good opposition so early in the season. We aimed to play 3 x 12 minute 'thirds' but with the exception of the final third we stopped after Feltonfleet had scored 4 goals. In the final third we did get into the game a little, even if this resulted in the away team scoring 6. Most of the goals we conceeded were well worked and included some powerful shooting. We could not match Feltonfleet for skill, physicallity or pace and for most of the game things just happened too quickly for us. We must put things into perspective and talking to their coach he informed me that this was their biggest and strogest group in the school with many boys playing outside school at the weekend. They have over 30 boys whereas all 16 of our boy in Year 5 took to the field today. We will and must improve and with 10 days before our next game we need to work hard and get better organised at practice. Inspite of the disappointing scoreline I was pleased with some of our effort, in particular Seb Baldwin and Max Hindley, Harry King did some some good work in goal too. Keep your heads up boys!!
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