After what was mostly a wet
afternoon in Crewe we overcome many obstacles; being back on astro, playing 2
out of 5 of our games against what turned out to be U10 teams (and on the whole
handling that as well as could be expected), using a new formation that we had
only trained with for the first time on Friday night, and some quite out of
order tactics from one particular U10 team. Despite all that the boys
hard-earned efforts saw us win the inaugural Crewe FC U9 Shield!
This is a great and well
deserved achievement by everyone that is associated with the team, from the
boys, the parents, and my helpers - Darren and Tom Attwater. We should all be
extremely proud of what we have achieved, not just for today, but for the
season as a whole. This accomplishment will help us massively going into the
new season - it provides huge confidence (which is the main component that is
missing from our game in my opinion) and can only be a positive for the boys.
We learned lots today; communication, making and utilising space, how to handle
a completely different game format to what we are used to and most importantly,
patience. It was really tough to wait the best part of 45 minutes between each
game, but the boys found some fun things to do, including doing laps on the
running track! Change is always difficult for this age group, and there will be
a fair bit of change next season too, but I know we all collectively handle it
well.
To what I expect will be considerable relief to everyone, I'm not going to go into a breakdown of each match (there were five, but I could :-)), so will just summarise this as best I can. Throughout the day, our goalies of Jack Br, Sam Ch, Sam Cu and Tom were immense - Jack and Tom faced off against the two U10 teams and I am so proud - some fantastic saves were made in extremely challenging circumstances. In defence, Harry, Max, OMG, Sam Ch and Oscar played very well in what was a new defensive format for them - this format is what I expect to take into the new season so was good to see them integrate into it well. Midfield and Attack we had Jack Binns, Tom, Oscar, OMG, Sam Cu and Jack Br trying to push forward where we could. It was really difficult for them battling through most of the matches to be honest, but when it mattered, in the final, we swarmed and dominated the opposition and we were unlucky to not make the final scoreline more than the 3-0 win that it ended with.
I'm so, so proud of the boys
you have no idea. Below are a couple of photo's of the winning team!
We take a break now for the
summer, and will return very late August/early September. I hope you all have a
fantastic break, and I'll see you all, raring to go in September for our second
season.
Thanks all,
Carl
AFC Waverton U9
Arrows
07896 515717
