21/05: Match Reports - Waverton Arrows vs. Upton

Hi All,

I'd arranged to play two Upton teams on Saturday to ensure we had good game time for everyone with the season rapidly heading towards a close. All boys were available but in the warm-up for the first match Oscar was clearly unwell so took the right, although hard decision to withdraw himself - I hope you get well soon Oscar and look forward to having you back for selection. I made Oliver Barnes captain for this match, which he has deserved to be honest due to his commitment and attitude in training over the past 4+ weeks.

Game 1

Q1 began and it immediately was an interesting match to watch. Although 6v6, I'd set the pitch up ready for the next 7v7 game so there was lots of space and both teams in this first match used it really well. For about the first 6-7 minutes we played pretty much entirely in Upton's half, but their goalie was amazing, it was very difficult to break him down. A few half chances by Upton in the closing minutes came close but ultimately fizzled out. End Q1 - Arrows 0 - Upton 0.

Q2 kicked off and the boys went again - we continued to dominate and battle for every single ball, it was really pleasing to watch; we were winning the ball back every time we lost it and our play was extremely positive. The ball broke at one point and Elliott jumped on it, took it past a player and slotted it home for his debut Arrows goal. End Q2 - Arrows 1 - Upton 0.

Q3 was end to end and continued to be great to watch; all of our boys were putting 100% into it, even though you could see that they were starting to tire. The highlight of this quarter was Upton breaking and playing through a number of our players and taking a shot which looked like it had beaten everyone, including our goalie, BUT Elliott came out of nowhere, cleared the ball off the line and started to run with it, and run with it, and run with it! He ran the complete length of the pitch, skipping and jumping over challenges before just narrowly missing with his shot - that effort really deserved a second goal. End Q3 - Arrows 1 - Upton 0.

Q4 began and with it still being 1-0 I was starting to think that we were going to be stunned at the end by Upton, who to be honest brought 13 boys to that 6v6 and each quarter every sub made seemed to be at least a foot taller than the boy they replaced! But my worries were short lived when Jack Binns took the ball, did a mazy little run and finished well to take us to 2-0. From that moment, our boys grew in confidence with every touch and really went for it. Oliver Barnes and Henry were fighting for every ball like I'd never seen before and a great combination effort saw Henry take his chance and belt the ball (another debut goal!) into the back of the net like I've seen him do so many times in training to take us to 3-0. With only a few minutes remaining, Upton crumbled and we scored two further quick-fire goals, both by Jack Binns to finish the match with a well deserving scoreline of Arrows 5 - Upton 0.

I'm extremely proud of the boys in this first match today - they played so well, and consistently for a full 40 minutes, the first time most of them had done that (it was part of the reason of arranging the extra match to be honest - to see how they coped - the answer - exceptionally well!). Every boy played with confidence and a smile (and determination) on their face; Sam Cheetham, Max, Elliott, Henry, Jack Binns, Jack Broadhurst (who had 1 quarter in goal for old times sake) and particularly Oliver Barnes who has come on so much and was one of the best captains we've had so far - at one point I heard someone barking orders, I looked over and it was Oliver telling his team-mates where to be! Well done Oliver!

Game 2

We started Q1 slightly late whilst both Upton and ourselves got our next teams ready and aware of their positions. On kick off by us we passed the ball nicely to the wing to enable a good positive run from the start, however we were quickly closed down and the Upton team put us under immediate pressure, bearing down on our goal but luckily OMG and Harry were on it and cleared the early danger. They continued to press and Caspar made some great saves, but unfortunately midway through the first half they took a decent opportunity to score. Upton's early attacking play was something that was going to prove to be a constant throughout the game, which overall unfortunately we didn't know how to deal with... End Q1 - Arrows 0 - Upton 1.

Q2 began and within a minute Upton had scored another one - we just switched off and let them run through us which is really uncharacteristic of our boys - clearly Upton had been watching the Europa Cup Final this week! Within about 4-5 minutes Upton had hit us again twice to really punish us. Oliver Wrigley, who had taken a knock early in the second quarter took an opportunity, similar to what he did against Ellesmere Port a few weeks ago and scored a really great effort to bring us ever so slightly back into the game. End Q2 - Arrows 1 - Upton 4.

We started to play our game in the third quarter - some of our passing was great, but we were making some basic mistakes as well which seemed to be continually knocking our confidence time and time again. We gave away a free kick towards the end of the quarter and it literally sailed past about 4 of our players from where I was standing and snuck in to take them to End Q3 Arrows 1 - Upton 5.

I sent the boys out in the final quarter with a reminder that we had beaten this team 5-0 on our last outing and we needed to finish in a positive fashion; I made a last second change in line up with Tom replacing Jack Broadhurst as striker (with the understanding Jack would come on towards the end). It turned out to be a great decision as Tom was on it from the off - he hunted every ball down and broke at one point from the half way line and dribbled through the Upton players and buried it at the end to take us to 2-5. Our heads seem to belatedly go up and we played like I know we can - pressing the ball and playing some great passing moves. I did think we were going to score at least one more, but it was all undone when Upton had another fortuitous piece of luck and scored their 6th. The game fizzled out then and ended shortly after for a final and disappointing result of Arrows 2 - Upton 6.

Our team in the second game really played within themselves during the match - the positive play that we have become used to just wasn't there in this game. In retrospect I can see what Upton did - when we played them last it was 6v6 and we dominated them in midfield - this weekend it was 7v7 and they used their extra player to stop us playing in the centre of the pitch and break down our play - I'm sorry I didn't pick up on this during the match, a lesson learned for me, although to be honest, even if I had changed the formation some of the boys seem to be tiring now, which is a real tell-sign that its nearly half term break.... We'll still do training on Wednesday and Friday though as I feel it is still very beneficial.

With two teams playing on Saturday I decided not to award the MotM trophy as I only have one! Looking back at the two games though, Elliott was a stand out player, so as long as he is available for this weekend's match versus Newton, I intend to make Elliott my captain - well played Elliott!

I've already sent a mail out for availability over the next two weeks. In the next few days I'll be sending out a note around the end of season party and potential availability for a series of matches on the same day in July - please look out for these as they will require responses. Please remember that all forms for next season need to be back with me by Saturday at the latest please! If you need to post them, drop me a note and I'll give you my address.

Thanks all - see you during the week.

Carl

AFC Waverton U8 Arrows
07896 515717

14/05: Match Report: Blacon 3 - Arrows 2

A lovely, sunny morning greeted us today as we started off against Blacon. A last minute change of venue meant an urgent comms effort by Dawn and myself but we all seemed to find it easily enough. I remember playing there with Jack when he was part of the Jets and we took a hammering that day in what is easily the largest pitch we have played to date, and that's saying something when considering the normal Blacon pitch!

We began an we were very much playing within ourselves, there seemed to be a chasm between defence and attack and we just couldn't get on the ball. Blacon could clearly see this and used it to their advantage, scoring 2 goals within a matter of about 4 minutes. Our heads didn't drop though and the goals seemed to focus our boys and we started to play football as I know we can. End Q1: Blacon 2 - Arrows 0.

Q2 commenced and we were starting to break forwards in spurts which looking back was the start of things to come. Blacon were using their physical advantage in terms of height to try to stamp their mark on the game (but in a good way if that makes sense - NO PV behaviour here!), but we were dealing with it well. However, a rare corner to Blacon saw the resultant ball go through two of our boys straight to a Blacon player who tapped it home for a score of Q2: Blacon 3 - Arrows 0.

We began Q3 with some changes to the team, but we went again. Every kick of the ball that we had seemed to make us more confident, whilst at the same time making Blacon more nervous - we were pushing the ball around really well now and our play was fantastic. Our opening goal came from a great piece of play; the build up was exceptional, splitting the Blacon defence and Jack Broadhurst moved the ball out towards the far post which the Blacon GK followed, but then Jack turned on the ball, set himself up quickly and hit an amazing goal (with his left foot nonetheless!), leaving the Blacon GK clearly trying to understand what had just happened. Jack took an injury shortly after and Sam Cheetham came on and within seconds he was getting forwards, attacking the ball and going for goal when possible; this was just a part of the team effort that I was seeing from the touchline today and it made me feel very happy indeed. End Q3: Blacon 3 - Arrows 1.

Q4 started and despite the size of the pitch, how tired the boys were and the rising temperature, we absolutely pummelled Blacon - we swarmed all over them - they honestly looked rattled; their #3 AKA the 'Coach Driver' was twisted and turned by Jack Binns so much that he ended up on the floor more often that not. We were breaking with speed, composure and power now and it was amazing to watch. A great move that involved a number of our players ended up with the ball at Jack Binns feet and he slotted it home very well to take us to 3-2 with 5 minutes to go. We had so much possession in those last 5 minutes with shots raining in from all angles - Blacon had panic on their faces and they were throwing bodies everywhere to block balls and efforts on goal. Every time our boys went forward on the break it was fantastic to hear all the parents really getting involved and cheering the team on. We continued to push and had a number of corners at the end which nearly gave us our equaliser but it wasn't to be and we finished Blacon 3 - Arrows 2.

A few things to note today - sorry for the last minute calls and text messages this morning - Neil (the Blacon Manager) had sent the details to me on the Friday night but my phone only received it at 8:30 on Saturday morning! Because of the pitch change, Blacon cancelled most of their games today. They kept ours because we were so competitive last time and Neil knew we would give them a proper game, so proper in fact that they didn't want their 'A' squad to go without playing so that's who we played today, rather than the team that is actually in our league. Apart from the opening 5-6 minutes we matched them, and by the end played much better than them which just shows again the fantastic progression we are making.

Caspar was a fantastic Captain today; he made some tremendous 'photo quality' saves today and his distribution was fantastic too (as was Oscar when he deputised in goal in the second quarter). My Man of the Match today was to someone who has taken recent feedback well, has played in positions I know he can play in (and played them really well today) even though I know he wants to play elsewhere. His composure and sheer dogged determination today was great to see - Sion will be my Captain next week when we face Upton.

After what has been a truly difficult week I have been very, very encouraged by what happened today and the continuous support from everyone. Onwards we go!

One final thing - as we walked off towards the end a few of the Blacon boys were sat on a a telephone/power cabinet and they called out to me, Darren, Dawn, Tom and a few boys that were with us what a great game it was and well played by our team - now that is how opponents should act!

See you in the week,

Carl

AFC Waverton U8 Arrows
07896 515717

07/05: Match Report: Arrows 1 - Princes Villa 4

Hi All,

Yesterday and this morning, I was quite looking forward to the match today but it quickly went down hill when we had complaints from PV that the pitch was too small for 7v7 (it wasn't). After multiple conversations with them I finally agreed to widen the pitch slightly and we finally got underway.

We started off brightly, attacking the ball and moving it around well, despite the fact that the ground wasn't great - a bowling green of a surface it was not. PV were definitely up for it as well (in a good way at this point) and you can see just how well drilled they are. The ball broke at one point and they took a shot which only narrowly went over the line to give them an early lead. A few minutes after our kick off, the ball rolled to Oliver Golding and from the half way line took a speculative shot and it went into the lower right hand corner to bring us level going into the break. End of Q1 - Arrows 1 - PV 1.

Q2 began and something changed; the PV players were pushing, shoving and clipping ankles where possible but I tried to keep the game flowing, much to our detriment in cases. Jack Broadhurst was taken down, but I again kept it going, however in a similar position, not long afterwards but this time a PV player on the ground, the PV parents (1 or 2 in particular) started to get abusive. I explained that the one tackle was not as bad as what had transpired on at least two occasions to our players, but this was met with just heightened abuse which now included swearing. I instructed the PV coach to get their parents under control as it was unacceptable, but to be honest it seemed to be a matter of fact response so clearly this is how this team now plays. Play continued but a rare defensive mix up saw us concede another to take us to the break Arrows 1 - PV 2.

Q3 continued with the type of play being undertaken by PV being close to the mark. We were being tripped, pushed and in one instance Sam Curtis (our Captain for the day) taking an elbow to the face. I've subsequently learned that PV parents were booing our boys whenever they went past - this is terrible, unacceptable behaviour - no wonder our boys heads started to drop. A combination of the early morning heat and the style of play being encountered by our boys (and now knowing what the parents were doing) was really starting to take a toll on our boys now.... End Q3: Arrows 1 - PV 2.

Q4 started and we were clearly playing within ourselves still; the whole situation was uncomfortable and not for the first time I was thinking about calling the game off - in retrospect I should, but then again it would of undoubtedly caused more friction with an aggressive PV team. Whenever our players broke forward PV players seemed to go down to break up the play; we had one or two chances but it just wouldn't break for us. PV took an opportunity and scored a decent goal, and it was shortly after our kick off that, with a PV player racing with the ball that we took the player out. It was a poor challenge and it could of been a damaging one to the player; it was so uncharacteristic of how we play that I reacted badly. We lost all moral high ground at that point, but I will learn from this as will the boys; more on this in a bit. In the dying minutes they scored again, to take the match to Arrows 1 - PV 4.

A few things now; please bear with me, each one is very important:

·         Sam Curtis was a great captain today in incredibly difficult circumstances. Thank you Sam, I know how much playing for the team means to you and how proud you are to lead them out.
·         It was the hardest to call today, due to how the game played out, but Caspar was awarded Man of the Match today after some great performances in goal. Thank you Caspar - you are my Captain going into Blacon next week, subject to your availability.
·         Princes Villa were shocking today - even at the very end, when we had the courtesy to shout the 'three cheers' chant they did not do it in return - extremely poor and so far away from the FA's spirit of the game you would not believe.
·         However, there will be teams that play like this unfortunately as we move through the age groups - decisions need to be made as to whether we want to continue. I know I do and think that most parents and importantly boys do too, but you all clearly need to be aware of this. An email regarding next season will be distributed in the next few weeks.

Finally - I created this team because I wanted to provide an opportunity to boys that were not given one elsewhere. Look how far we have come in such a short space of time. I am my own worst critic (believe me) and am not happy with today for a whole range of reasons. I will put it right.

Thank you for your support as always.

Carl

AFC Waverton U8 Arrows
07896 515717