A rip roaring opener for the newly formed Wizards and Rockets on a fresh January morning.
Not an easy one to call as the game ultimately proved with the wizards edging the encounter mainly due to two simple points, holding position and moving the ball.
Mixing the sides for this encounter our emphasis was on fun and learning, its not about the score but how our players interact with each other and show their individual skills that they are hopefully building each week. The exact formation each week will change but each squad will have a core based on year group, so where you were this week may not be where you next but we want to try and maintain some form of stability. Now the game.
Rockets started brightly with new faces of katie and roan supporting jack in midfield with ryan tackling hard up front with super sweeper joel ready to suppress the wizards forward movement and jake with the gloves. The wizards had a much more familiar line up with archie picking up the gloves, joe dropping into defence for his debut with issac, ed, tom and christian completing the line up.
Rockets powered their way forward with roan and katy making good impressions early on, forcing the wizards back though joe in defence was more than up to the task. However it was good work between jack and ryan that forced the first goal, ryan squeezed a pass to jack who unleashed his shot, archie made a good save however katie was on hand to stab the ball home from close range to record her first goal, a proud moment in any players career! The wizards looked miffed to say the least but happily picked up the challenge and began to put pressure on the rockets goal, but were lacking the final pass favouring indivuality!
To that end joel and jake easily stopped the wizards attacks and to their credit moved the ball quickly up to ryan to start their own attack which nearly gave the rockets their second goal. A neat one two between ryan and jack again set up the opportunity but archie was equal to it. The wizards moved the back equally as quick back up field only for jake to foil christian from close range. End to end football.
However as the clock ticked down the wizards finally began to see the passes, tom slipped the ball to christian who obliged with a neat finish past jake to equalise right on the whistle.
Into the second period and only the keepers changed (though going forward everyone will get their chance to guard the sticks for a period). Once again rockets started well with joel eager to chase down the ball and ryan and katie abley supporting making their presence felt. Wizards tried to play out but were dispossessed by joel who then poked home at the near post to make it 2-1. Wizards mounted several attacks but when archie found himself isolated the rockets exploited the situation and between ryan and jack the move ended in the rockets taking a 3-1 lead.
Again the wizards dug deep and despite a number of very good saves from roan in goal issac made space in the box to fire home the wizards second goal. From this point on the wizards looked the more likely to score, roan again made several good saves but the rockets formation always looked fragile allowing tom and ed space to create. Again as the half closed out the wizards pressed forward with tom and archie combining well to carve out an opportunity for tom to equalise.
Into the final period and all to play for, again keepers changed gloves (reluctantly in some cases) and players will learn that each position is as important to the 'team' performance, we know they all like to score or play in the glory positions but they all need to experience the different demands of other positions.
The final period was honours even for the first five minutes, however the rockets were sailing close to the wind by leaving their defense largely unguarded and if it wasn't for jack in goal the scoreline would have changed after goodwork from issac and joe.
However with the game drawing to a close and tom switching to striker the opportunities being created by the wizards proved too much and tom eagerly converted several times to edge a very good opening game for the wizards.
What can be said is that all the new players gave promising performances while the seasoned players demonstrated what they have learned over the past year.
Going forward the season will provide a great opportunity for the players to learn and grow together but I also want to start to issue a performance report to help the players understand their strengths and weaknesses, something I'll explain over the coming weeks but fair to say players attitude and skills in training and in games will be marked to try and help them improve.
