London Maccabi Lions 7-3 Northwood Reds
Player of the Match Declan
Due to injury, illness and unavailability the team was down to the 9 for the last game of the year over at London Maccabi, though this should have not been an issue as Maccabi only had 8.
Again players were asked to play out of their usual positions but this will always help then in their development, so they all took the challenge to try something new.
The game was not 3 minutes when a mix up in the Northwood defence let Maccabi in and then finished well 1-0 to Maccabi but barely 5 minutes later the woods were back on equal terms from a great counter attack starting with a great pass from Lewis Reid that found Joshua who went through one on one with the keeper who saved his shot well , but player of the match Declan was on hand to stab home the re-bound.
The game was being well contested but you could tell the very verbal Maccabi coach had got his 8 boys well up for the match and his constant shouting was probably scaring them into action, not a method you will ever find me or John doing.
Again two sloppy goals that were really caused by our own mistakes had the score at 3-1 at halftime. The chat at halftime was telling the boys that they were still very much in the game and one goal would lead to another but to start working harder both individually and as a team it was very obvious that some players had given up all ready.
The second half started and after 5 minutes in Maccabi had got their forth from a well struck effort from outside the penalty area it seemed that the instructions at half time had not registered. But this was the beginning of a very surreal 10 minutes that saw another 4 goals go in. Lewis Reid hit a great effort from outside the penalty area to make it 4-2 but 3 minutes later it was 5-2 Maccabi with again another mistake being gratefully accepted and a goal scored. From the resulting kick off some great inter passing between Joshua Saihaan and Declan lead to Saihaan netting to make it 5-3. Then from that KO the boys had gone to sleep to let Maccabi in to score 6-3. The game was still being fiercely contested all over the pitch with the more physical Maccabi layers leaving their mark on a number of the Northwood players, but our player of the match Declan was chasing down every ball and was linking up well with his team mates in a number o passing moves.
Then with about 5 minutes to go with the boys still searching to get back into the game Maccabi broke from a Northwood corner and a hopeful shot was deflected in by one of the Northwood defenders to make the final score 7-3.
Again definitely one to forget but again missing key players did not help the cause.
Squad
Rayyan, George, Ben Bambrough, William, Lewis Ryan Saihaan, Lewis Reid, Declan Joshua.
