Despite the temperamental weather, everyone was fired up for this match and the only tough choice at the start was who should get on the pitch first. The coaches have never had such a predicament before with 13 players all eagerly waiting to play.
Jako's dad kindly agreed to referee the game for us and we kicked off in fine style, immediately taking the game to Warrington. We looked strong right from the start, although there were a couple of tense moments with the wet ball spinning off Marc's boots on more than one occasion. Just as we thought we were getting the upper hand we were unfortunate to concede a penalty when big Dom clattered into the opposition and just about knocked him off his feet. Other referees may have let this go but eagle eyed Ste was having none of it and correctly awarded a penalty to the opposition.
They stepped up to take the shot and fired a powerful ball right down the middle which Jake comfortably handled away before pouncing on the rebound and launching it up-field. Mark and Dom settled down in defence and both comfortable in clearing away any danger with vigour. Some good movement up and down the pitch ensued with us having a couple of wide shots from Travis who looked eager to score again tonight. We had a couple of good attempted corners before Tom took one and dropped it onto Travis's head with pinpoint accuracy for him to gloriously knock into the back of the net. 1-0 to us.
We really lit up and attacked Warrington for the next few minutes with Joseph coming on for Travis and then Thomas taking up a new position in attack, for Alex, and playing one of his best games for a while, with some great movement and attacking play. Joe had one or two good efforts on goal before really growing in confidence and smashing a belting shot past their keeper to put us 2-0 up. We definitely had the better half here with a number of good attacking movements up and down the pitch. Jacob had a decent game tonight and put in some cracking shoulder charges and throw-ins and twinkle toes Ethan once again showed the opposition how to flick a ball away. Jacob came off for Katie who played really well tonight, putting in lots of effort and great movement, coming close to scoring on more than one occasion and then Marc allowed Daniel to come on for his first game for us.
Daniel did everything we'd discussed in training and kept his eyes totally on the ball making some great blocking tackles and solid clearances throughout the time he was on the pitch. He even shrugged off an elbow to the face and carried on as if it hadn't happened (all the hard clashes with big Dom in training has certainly paid off!). We ended the half 2-0 up and were looking forward to the second.
Warrington kicked off again as Dom came off to make way for Ben, who also had a decent game playing in defence. Whilst not his preferred position he got stuck in and chased everything that came near him, clearing the ball away whenever he could. Just when it looked like we were going to score again, Warrington managed to slip through and pick up a loose ball from a defensive mistake and allowing them to get one back. 2-1. Joe, still full of energy was having none of that and chased up the field like a missile to slot a beautiful ball past the opposition keeper in a top notch solo move for his second goal of the match. - 3-1.
Unfortunately, another slip up in defence allowed Warrington to lift a loose ball, which bounced over one or two heads, over the top of Jako and put them close to catching us. However, this seemed to lift the team spirit a little and everyone settled back down and fully concentrate which allowed some great teamwork to drop a nice ball to Alex, who yet again was able to take control of the ball, steady himself and then send a lovely shot into the bottom left corner of the net in what may become a trademark finish for him. 4-2
Everyone was rotated on the pitch to try to allow a fair amount of playing time and at the end Dom was moved into midfield for the last couple of minutes to try to add a bit of power. Both he and Marc made some great runs up the pitch, with Marc in particular showing some great footwork to get him right to the top of the field to get some crosses in. We though Travis had nailed a second goal with a good strong movement up the pitch and nice finish, however the referee dis-agreed and wiped the goal off for an elbow from Travis. The final score was 4-2 to us
The game had some great moments with every player really putting in some great effort, particularly on such a miserable night. Joe almost got man of the match for a great performance which was his best yet for us and really had him becoming much more confident in front of goal and using the speed that we knew he had. Man of the match today however went to Daniel who really got stuck into the game and showed great composure and concentration.
The hardest part for us tonight was trying to control the substitutions, which means that we may need to rethink how we do this and is something we're going to look at in training. A big thanks to Ste for agreeing to referee for us at very short notice and a huge thanks as usual to all our parents for their great support.
Next match is at home on Saturday when our season really starts - see you all there :)
