I will try to keep these a bit shorter going forward :-).
We were playing the only team in the league that we hadn't encountered thus far and I was really intrigued to see how we faired. We had agreed to swap location to Newton's pitch and also 7v7, similar to what we did with Blacon last week.
Q1 started very very well. We dominated most of the play in the first quarter and it was really good to see. We had the majority of chances, but just lacked that instinct to put it away. A rare piece of pressure by Newton towards the end, resulted in a corner and it very nearly went in, but we quickly cleared the danger whereas in weeks gone by we would have seen that type of chance go in. End of Q1: Newton 0 - Arrows 0.
Q2 did start off initially as we finished the first quarter with a bit of pressure on Newton, and then something happened to us that hasn't been a problem before - on occasions when we lost the ball, instead of the boys in advanced positions racing to get it back, we on the whole started to walk/jog back towards our half, by which time Newton played positively up the field and put us under tremendous pressure. With Newton being as skilled as they are, they took this lack of concentration with pleasure and scored three goals in rapid succession - Tom made some blinding saves during this period and was in no way at fault for these goals - they were set much further up the field. End of Q2: Newton 3 - Arrows 0.
Q3 unfortunately continued like Q2, with us ambling back once the ball was lost - this really isn't anything I've seen us do before, but in addition to this, there were instances of some of the boys deciding to have a chat whilst the match was going on around them, which again just gave Newton the momentum they needed to get a further foothold on the game. Two more goals were scored and you could see the boys heads dropping. End of Q3: Newton 5 - Arrows 0.
Q4 began after I made some key changes to the squad and their positions - I really wanted to shore things up and get back to us playing football as I know we can. From the moment we kicked off, we spread the ball right to Oliver Wrigley and he made a great charge down the right - the ball came in and Harry, Jack and Sion all attacked it and were unlucky to not get a result from their efforts. This set the tone for the rest of the quarter - we dominated again - really playing some great football - Xander had moved back to his old position of Left Wing Back and was exceptional - really taking on his players and was unlucky too to not be rewarded with a goal or two. The pressure we put on Newton was immense and resulted midway through with the opposition scoring an own goal. We had many more chances after that, but similar to the first quarter, we just couldn't finish today. End of Q4 and final result: Newton 5 - Arrows 1.
Oliver Wrigley was my captain today and did a great job, thank you Oli. Man of the Match this week could again of been one of many, but due to some exceptional goalkeeping and no-fear attitude, I was delighted to award it to Tom. Well done Tom - this means of course that he will be my Captain when we play Saughall next weekend, subject of course to being available.
One thing to note about Newton - they are well known for their talent and being a base from which many are involved in academies - the score-line today is not a bad one believe me - overall we held a very good account of ourselves, please remember that and also please pass this on to your boys.
Thanks to everyone again for your support - the parental turnout is fantastic - really great to see. Yet again, a few things have come out of today that we'll work on over the next few weeks, but that's what Friday nights are for!
Have a great weekend and see you on Friday.
Carl
AFC Waverton U8 Arrows
07896 515717
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