Bizarre weather, but great
game with a well fought and deserved win effectively sums up this morning...
EP Rangers (EPR) joined our
league from the middle tier just a few weeks ago and their quality/experience
showed. Yet again it was a fantastic, competitive match - something that we are
starting to see week on week now which is fantastic - the boys are clearly
taking training on a Friday and (for the boys that are available) on a
Wednesday and applying it really well during matches.
Q1 got underway and we
swarmed over EPR, not letting them settle on the ball for an instant - again
something we have been working on relentlessly in training lately. Midway
through the quarter, from a Jack Binns throw, Oli Wrigley controlled the ball
and slotted it home for an early lead. Not long after that the hailstones,
really started to descend and distracting everyone on both teams we called a
brief pause to the play. Needless to say as soon as we were all off the pitch,
it stopped so we resumed fairly quickly. On resumption of the match, we carried
on as we had been playing before, but from an EPR corner the ball took a bounce
off one of our players and it went in to bring them level. We kept our
composure though and towards the end of the quarter, Oli W took a great throw
in and Jack Broadhurst latched onto it to score what is fast becoming a
trademark strike for him. End of Q1: Rangers 1 - Arrows 2.
We started Q2 a bit sluggish
if I'm honest, but again every ball was fought for by both sides - we were
caught on the break at one point and EPR scored to bring us level in what again
was a really great game to watch. End of Q2: Rangers 2 - Arrows 2.
Q3 resulted in a few
positional changes; I wanted to keep us strong at the back but change our
attacking options a bit as it wasn't quite clicking. We were out of our Q2
slumber now and going for it - we had most of the possession but a horror
tackle on Oli W which literally threw him into the air and resulted in him
crashing down hard onto the surface brought the game to a halt. Oli was clearly
shaken (and after checking him out he was okay, just shocked) but he refused to
come off. One minute later we were 3-2 up as Oli W, clearly on a mission now,
blasted it into the net. End of Q3: Rangers 2 - Arrows 3.
Q4 began and again we went
for it - our old habit of dropping off due to tiredness seems to have gone for
now, which is great; again the extra training is paying dividends here and
clearly making a difference. We battled and fought for every ball - we were
opened up again though on one or two occasions and one of these resulted in an
equaliser for EPR - this was after some remarkable close range saves by Sam
Curtis who kept goal for us today (more on Sam in a bit). Pretty much
from the resultant kick off though, the boys went again and the passing around
the pitch was fantastic. At one stage, the ball broke for Oli Wrigley and he
secured his hat-trick with a very calm and composed finish to take us back into
the lead. Towards the end the ball from EPR (in their own half) went out for a
throw to us, but their boy carried it back out with his feet and passed it
forward - myself and Darren were calling that it was out, but the EPR boys
carried on going and kicked it into our net - myself and Darren followed this
up with the ref who ultimately gave it to us; the goal was disallowed and the
play was brought back to a throw in as it should of been. It was real end to
end now; they had a few chances but we had more - most of the boys were all
breaking where they could and having shots on goal - a fair few of them just
being slightly wide of the post. The quarter and match ended with a deserved
victory to us: Rangers 3 - Arrows 4.
I spoke with the EPR coach
who again complemented us for our competitiveness and relentless chasing of the
ball - some good positive feedback to hear. The sky opened up again at that
point and everyone scrambled away to their cars.
Jack Binns was a great captain
today - as mentioned last week,
Jack's long accurate throws really opens up play for us and seeing him bomb up
and down that left wing is great to see; especially when mirrored by Oli
Wrigley on the right - our attacking options are really starting to build now.
Man of the Match today was
Sam Curtis who was exceptional. I had
to make some last minute positional changes which meant that Sam took keeper
duties for the first quarter and because of the calmness he brought to the role
he ended up staying in that position for the match. Whilst our attacking
options are getting better as mentioned earlier, our defensive play is also
building rapidly too and to have a strong goalkeeper just helps to settle
everyone down - Sam really played excellent today, I can't emphasise that
enough - his fantastic shot stopping (at both close range and from distance)
and distribution of the ball helped us close out the game, so thank you Sam -
you'll be my captain next week against Princes Villa which will be at our Huntington
ground - the grass has finally been cut!!!!!!
One final note - our last
four games have resulted in 2 wins, a draw and a loss (albeit against Newton) -
great to see a bit of consistency come into our results - its very much well
deserved - lets try and keep it going!
I hope you all have a great
long weekend.
Carl
AFC Waverton U8 Arrows07896 515717
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