Eagle 1 - Sutton 0
The rain today added to the misery we felt upon conceding a goal with the last kick of the game. Going forward we were strong and positive and indeed passed the the ball around nicely, eager to get a goal and there was some good performances particularly from Katie who was strong throughout the game and put some real pressure on Eagle at times almost gaining man of the match in the process. Jyoti came incredibly close to his first goal and was only denied by the Eagle keeper when he threw himself onto the ball at Jyoti's feet. Jacob made some good dribbling runs forward and launched it with some tremendous throw-ins.
In midfield, Ethan was as consistent as ever, nicking the ball of the opposition at every opportunity and playing some beautiful balls up the field for the strikers, Dylan was a man possessed at times and chased the ball everywhere, including whipping it off his team-mate at one point! Hollie got stuck-in and whilst not her usual lively self, consistently chased the ball and defended her line very well when required. Thomas is growing in confidence and made some excellent tackles and good clearances up the field.
Defending we were strong for the majority of the match and apart from the odd mistake we were pretty safe despite at times making it hard for ourselves. Alex had a very good game today and covered lots of ground, standing strong throughout the game. Kyle was caught out of position one or two times when trying to assist his team mates, but to his credit was able to recover well and get back to clear the ball and Jako was amazing in goal, simply preventing Eagle's shots on a number of occasions and gaining himself a very well deserved man of the match in the process.
Whilst we were good going forward, we were our own worst enemies in a game where we chased the first ball but then sat back and allowed Eagle to gain control of the second ball, putting ourselves straight back under pressure. At times we sat too far up the field making it hard for Jako to get the ball to the players which meant that Eagle were straight back at us. To be fair both Alex and Kyle, as well as Jako, were up to the challenge, but there shouldn't have been any need for this had we positioned ourselves properly. Eagle's goal finally came when we sat too far up the field again and Kyle was unable to stop them. Not an easy task when it's four on one! He tried his best to get the ball from them but he couldn't do it all on his own.
Once again this was a good match to watch and it's great to watch everyone bonding well and playing well together. A draw would have been a fair result but it wasn't to be today! We need to keep our heads up now and learn from our mistakes, hopefully coming back stronger!
Thanks to Eagle for a good, fair game and to our great parents for the support they gave in the miserable conditions. Big thanks also to Ste Lea for helping out and running the line.
