What a game!!! I've been ecstatic all afternoon, not just
because of the score, but more importantly by the way the boys acted, behaved,
listened and took their drills from Wednesday and Friday into the game.
Q1: A first for us it has to be said - playing Upton, on
their pitch without a monsoon! However it had clearly hit in the previous 24
hours as the field overall was very boggy; however the club had protected the
best part of it for our game and it was on the whole very playable. I reminded
the boys about the specific training we had done this week, especially around
passing the ball and not giving up after we had taken that first touch, and boy
did it show in this quarter and also across the match. We pushed the ball
forward from kick off and rather than sit back as we normally do, we didn't
give Upton a second on the ball and we continually pushed forward and had no
end of chances in this first period. Jack Broadhurst (Br) hit the woodwork a
few times and Jack Binns (Bi) and Tom had a couple of decent chances each too.
One of our corners (from Tom) arched towards the box perfectly and Jack
Br buried it to give us and him a well deserved lead going into the
break. End of Q1: Upton 0 - Arrows 1 (how it wasn't 4-5 I don't know!).
Q2: We started just as well in this quarter; Upton were
clearly on the back foot and didn't know what to do with us - Jack Br again hit
the woodwork and had another chance cleared off the line, but on a separate
occasion the ball broke for Jack Bi and he drove it forward and slotted it
away. From KO we carried on again, completely controlling the play. Two weeks
ago, when we played Upton, Jack Br tried to score from the halfway line and was
just inches over the crossbar - today, Jack was in the same position,
confidence flowing and he struck the ball again. This time it was perfect and
flew into the top right hand corner (our left) with the goalkeeper having no
chance to save it - what a goal!!! As a coach, it was an exceptional technical
goal that he has been working on for a while now, but for the first time you'll
hear my opinion as a parent - it was absolutely amazing and I am so, so proud
of him today (many treats and rewards followed today - a fate apparently shared
by a few parents today I believe!). End of Q2: Upton 0 - Arrows 3.
Q3 was again really competitive, the main difference here
was that the boys were starting to flag a bit, so much was the intensity that
they had been playing with so far - but throughout the message remained and was
executed perfectly - keep the ball, win it back when lost and push forward.
Unfortunately it looked like Sion took a knock in this section and he was
replaced by Tom who within minutes, grabbed the ball on the right wing and
powered down the field and brilliantly finished to start to give us all hope
that we were on for a victory. End of Q3: Upton 0 - Arrows 4.
I told the boys prior to this final quarter that this was
the best I had seen the Arrows play as an overall unit - and to not let our
attention dip - to go out and win the last quarter. They did us all proud and
stepped up again - the dip in stamina in Q3 was gone and they, for a boy, went
again - we were pushing the ball to the left wing, right wing and through the
centre and we peppered the Upton goal with shots - again we could of scored 3-5
in this last section, but it eventually came to Tom - a great bit of build up
play including the two Jack's found its way to Tom who showed great composure
today and hit it home for our fifth (and left his dad wondering where the
nearest cash machine was ;-)). End of Q4 and the match: Upton 0 - Arrows 5.
I've covered the highlights above - I could of written much,
much more (!) but I need to say that this was a complete team performance - our
goalies (Tom for 1 quarter and Oscar, my captain for today for 3 quarters)
played very, very well - ball distribution was fantastic. Our defenders of
Harry, OMG and Elliott built a barrier that Upton just couldn't get through,
and this then formed the platform for all of our attacks. Jack Binns on the left
and Sion/Tom on the right wings drove the ball forward repeatedly and when the
ball was lost, fought quickly to regain it and launch the next wave of attack.
And finally Jack Broadhurst, building on his last two games, he is growing in
the role of Attacking Midfielder/Striker and is really giving the opposition
something to be worried about - some of the Upton boys were having to literally
grapple him to keep him confined (it didn't work though). Everyone gave a
perfect performance today and I thank all the boys - this has been coming for a
while now....
My captain today was Oscar - after scoring his debut goal
last week I tussled with the fact that I was going to put him in goal for all
of his sections today - but it paid off - he was great in training on Friday in
that position as well as in warm up this morning and the result was that Oscar
(with Tom in the 2nd quarter) provided our first competitive clean sheet of the
season - believe me at this level that takes some doing!
Man of the Match was extremely difficult today - it could of
gone to any of the boys; I nearly did that at one point to be honest, but
ultimately, with his assisting Oscar in goal for that one quarter and more
importantly coming on as impact sub in the third and then owning that right
back position in the last quarter it had to go to Tom. Well done Tom, I'm
really proud of you (and all the boys today) - Tom will therefore be my
Captain, subject to availability next week against Newton.
Thanks everyone - great support as always.
Carl
AFC Waverton U8 Arrows07896 515717
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