It was a chilly morning with everyone feeling the cold apart from myself and HT.
The weather did stay at bay, although by the end my toes were definitely on the wrong side of numb!
We started our game with Raith stepping up in goal first half, whilst Chayley was celebrating a family birthday. Caught out in defense for their first goal, with such big goals, difficult to make a save, but we showed hard work and determination to bring it to 1-1 on the half hour mark with a well taken goal from Caiden, who had put in a great first half performance! A beautiful corner from Reece, netting him another assist for the season. Unfortunately we didn’t hold our lead for too long as way into stoppage time, a flukey lob found its way into our goal and we went in 2-1 down.
Change of keeper for our second half losing our main strength guy up front, but having the football minded Raith gave us a bit of a change, A new Partner for Harry. We had chance after chance which we kept putting straight at the keeper or taking one to many touches when we need to be finishing. It wasn’t long before Raith and Harry linked up in what was incredibly unselfish from Harry, as he slotted through to an unmarked raith who placed the ball expertly passed their keeper.
Following this we hit woodwork, gave away dangerous free kicks, but we worked more as a unit, covering where needed and Tom made a fantastic dive late on to keep his clean sheet for the second half!
Managers man of the match went to the fantastic work of Tom, the clean sheet, bravery shown in goal and such a pain for the opposition their coach came to have words! I liked that!
Parents player and team spirit both went to Caiden, who today showed a maturity to his game, when players were “biting” at him and complaining or having a go, he didn’t bite back, but showed them what he can do with the ball at his feet! His comms were across the pitch and constantly encouraging the team also!
Captains performance by Harrison we saw a constant threat on the left wing, as he used his skills time and time again to get the ball out of defence, working with Matthew closely when defending, it’s become a fantastic left sided partnership!
Matthew - solid and fantastic challenges, the ref even stating time and time again how fair your challenges were! Your speed and the tenacity to not give up that you show, constantly strikes fear into me (for your own safety) and in opposition players as they don’t expect you!
Reece - a quieter game for you today in CB towards the right, trust more in yourself, and keep your eye on that ball to get to it first, a few balls that bounced were where you were beaten, so get to that ball first… don’t let it bounce, you know you have the skill! Going forward a couple of useful runs, don’t back off, you keep going! Fantastic corners as always!
Archie, a tiring day when you faced their 2nd fastest player on the wing, and she could run!! You put in excellent challenges, kept your head and also put in excellent corners. Let’s see a few more of those going forward, and don’t give up on a run, if you are going, then commit. If you lose the ball, it’s the 5 second rule!
Ollie C - a little lost in the middle of the park, not sure if you’d had a late night or if it was the cold taking your breath away, but you didn’t massively get started in that role that you have covered so well previously! A move back to the wing to get that confidence back up is definitely in order!
Pheen - partnering up with both Ollie’s, and great work tracking back to be an option to help the defence move the ball out. Try not to let your frustrations show on the pitch as much as possible, we can work on some quicker 1-2’s to get that ball out of defence and I will keep calling the other players back too! It may take a little time, but we have enough subs that I can make changes if players look tired too!
Ollie H - you love to run your heart out and having you off for that little bit of first half made a difference to your game. We spoke a little about your autism and how I think it’s an asset that your brain works differently. You went on full of beans and almost scored from a fantastic individual run skipping through 4 of their players challenges! Let’s work on when to use your pace so you aren’t completely exhausted!
Chase - fantastic going forward as always and thought you were going to score on more than one occasion, need to see you working back more as left us open when we got the ball in defence, you were up with our 2 strikers, and not helping out the defence as much as we need. You’ve got the skill and knowledge to do so.
Leo - a great shift and a lot of running out in, together with some fantastic tackles, really growing in confidence every week still, don’t let that head drop if you miss your tackle, chase them down as you may get that second go at them!
Harry - a fantastic performance and definitely in the mind of the players for team spirit and managers for your solid performance, clever passing and through balls, understanding that passing is a massive key to getting past players easily. So unlucky not to score today, but the assist to Raith was clever, unselfish and well placed!
Overall whilst they had foul throws we didn’t have one, and I hope to maintain that!
We played against the 3rd fastest u13 in the country, and you caused him some hassle as a team, also commended by their coach too - who said if we had won his team couldn’t complain about it as we outplayed them across the pitch.
They also had one of the most dramatic players who definitely contributed 8 minutes to out 9 minutes extra play!!!
This was a very solid team performance and the buys excelled in the 4-4-2 change of formation, suring up the midfield more in front of our defence, allowing the full backs to really press up when we had the chance without leaving the back too open. Comms across the pitch were great today, hearing you encourage each other was really great to hear!!!
Thanks to parents for your support and to Neil for running the line whilst Terry 2 supported me on the coaches side!
Let’s go Bees!!!
