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 Arrows07896 515717
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