Saturday, 12 March 2016

12/03: Match Report: Waverton Arrows 2 - Newton 6

Hi All,

A quite frustrating day yet again where we dominated most of the game but just couldn't find a sharp edge in our finishing and also lost our positional awareness on a few occasions which ultimately handed the game to Newton.

The training session on Friday evening was really positive - we were passing well and also our attacker vs. defender drill really threw up a few surprises (Oliver Barnes I'm calling you out here, you were very strong in this exercise and I'm keen to see you carry this through to the next match you are selected for).

Anyway to the match, we started off very positively and were unlucky not to get a few early goals, perhaps on reflection a sign of things to come. Newton too had a couple of chances but nothing that bothered Sam Curtis who was keeping goal superbly. End of Q1: Arrows 0 - Newton 0.

Q2 got underway and it was a very similar period to Q1, except this time Oliver Wrigley took a superb chance and buried it into the net. We looked comfortable and fully in control for a few minutes, but after what can only be described as a 50:50 challenge where a fair bit of writhing around was the result, a free kick was awarded and it was placed well, past our defence and goalie to bring everything level. End of Q2: Arrows 1 - Newton 1.

Q3 was difficult if I'm honest; some of the boys were clearly struggling in terms of energy and overall fitness and overall our heads went down. Two quick goals by Newton emphasised the point, but we still continued to attack, albeit with no end product. However, one fantastic break by our boys saw Jack Binns bury it to bring us back into the game. It seemed we were getting assertive again, but a fortuitous break by Newton down their right ended in a cracking shot that ended up in the top left corner - those type of goals are very hard to save, but still unfortunate to see. End of Q3: Arrows 2 - Newton 4.

I sent the boys out in Q4 with the message that we were still clearly in this, we just need to keep calm and hold our positions when needed. Overall we did this and at one point the ball came across from the right and Jack Binns took a fantastic shot which was honestly just wide of the post. This summed up our day to be honest in that we just couldn't find a way of finishing in this match, which is something for me to think about this week. Literally, straight from the resultant goal kick, Newton cut through us and scored their fifth. Our boys kept their heads up though and continued to battle and had a hat-full of chances that again we just couldn't put away. Towards the dying minutes, Newton broke us down and scored the final goal of the match. End of Q4 & the match: Arrows 2 - Newton 6.

To be honest its been a hard one for me today. Overall this is one of the most competitive games we have played so far and we really didn't deserve to have that result. We (I) need to look at how we can drive out these silly mistakes we are making, including lapses in concentration which are costing us. Overall I believe that most boys have one or two positions that they can play in which for them is what I will concentrate on going forward. What is a problem though is that we have no natural striker or goal keeper. Don't get me wrong, we have plenty of boys that want to be a GK, but not for more than one or two quarters. We need to find someone (or potentially two) in the team that can stay in goal at times for the entire match and hold their concentration throughout. I'll speak to the boys about this on Friday at training.

One final thing - Oliver Golding was a sensational captain today - he has a knack of being at one end of the pitch and then being able to chase after an opposition player (who has a clear head start) and not only catch up with him, but make a precision tackle, every time taking the ball and not the boy. Oliver really battled today and really owned the role of Captain, thank you Oliver.

A mail will come out shortly regarding availability over the next 4 weeks - please can I ask that you respond accordingly so I can make any rotation as fair as possible.

Thanks all.

Carl
AFC Waverton U8 Arrows
07896 515717

No comments:

Post a Comment