Match Report: Tarvin 8 - Waverton Arrows 3

Hi All,

A really pleasing, yet frustrating match on Saturday in equal measure can best describe the game. Tarvin had three teams in the mid-Cheshire league last season and over the Christmas period we played their middle and lower teams and beat them 3-0 and 9-0 respectively. At the same time, their top team and middle team played the Rockets and Tarvin won and drew these two games respectively so that needs to be understood and appreciated; as can be expected from the season so far, Tarvin have entered their Top team into our league, so we again need to keep that in mind when looking at the overall performance.

Q1 started and for 10 of the first 15 minutes we absolutely dominated Tarvin - they did not know how to handle us; our control on the ball and passing was exceptional - the boys really brought forward the training we did so well on the Friday night before. Their coach was visibly and verbally shaken - he wasn't expecting this! I said to Darren that this is what we are capable of and this is how we can play (albeit our shots were either just narrowly wide or hitting the post) - this was just before the tide turned... Tarvin literally had three breaks on us in the last 5 minutes and each one resulted in a goal - yet again we succumbed to the double sucker punch of not being able to finish our chances and then getting no luck when the opposition hit their opportunities against us. End of Q1: Tarvin 3 - Waverton 0.

Q2 began and a few subs were made - from the start we seemed to play within ourselves and our decision making wasn't what it should be with us spending too long on the ball instead of making the pass which inevitably invited Tarvin to pressure us and more often than not win the ball which they made us pay for by scoring another three goals. Before those additional strikes though we did do a beautiful passing move that resulted in Jack Broadhurst scoring a really well taken goal. End of Q2: Tarvin 6 - Waverton 1.

Q3 was underway and we were still played well within ourselves - our positioning just wasn't right and we were starting to be dragged out of position - something that has really damaged us in the previous 2 games. Tarvin cut through us as one point, taking full advantage of this and scored again. After the resultant kick off our boys seemed to get quite invigorated (I think the Tarvin boys were being quite vocal at this point - both on and off the pitch, which seemed to spur our boys on) and a fantastic shot from the left wing by Jack Binns went into the goal to give us a slither of hope back into the game. Unfortunately though, towards the end of this quarter, the Tarvin attack bore down on our goal and we gave away a penalty which they scored to take them to End Q3: Tarvin 8 - Waverton 2. One real highlight at the end though was when Tarvin were getting ready to take their penalty, Oscar (in goal), started to channel Bruce Grobbelaar which is exactly the right thing to do - well played Oscar and unlucky!

We started Q4 and we finally started to play like we did in Q1 - we dominated Tarvin again (believe me the opposition were not backing off) - our passing was fantastic and we had so many chances on goal, but yet again we just could not consistently finish (guess what we are going to be doing on Friday!) At one point though Oliver Golding burst through the midfield, took on a couple of the Tarvin players and buried it into the net to take us to a final scoreline of: Tarvin 8 - Waverton 3.

I started the report by saying I was pleased, yet frustrated - pleased that the tweak in formation is really working in terms of us using and attacking the ball so confidently now and the boys aren't rooted to the spot like we were against Malpas. Pleased as well that our wide midfielders are running with the ball and creating some fantastic crosses into the box. Frustrated in that we couldn't continue our dominance of the first quarter in the second and third periods and only got it back in the final quarter when it was by that time a massive up-hill struggle (we certainly tried though which was great to see in itself!)

Overall I can see where we have improved and also where focus needs to be applied which is what its all about. I'm looking forward to Friday, although training after the last day of half-term has historically been difficult - we will need parental support I'm sure!

Thanks as always.

Carl

AFC Waverton U9 Arrows
07896 515717

Match Report: Princes Villa Colts 5 - Waverton Arrows 1

Hi All,

A really competitive game, played against a PV team that have some really individually talented boys but a game that also had masses of luck (good and bad) at both ends of the field.

We started off with us utilising a slightly revised, but important, formation change that I hoped would enable the boys to feel more confident in playing up the pitch, and the boys took to it fantastically - we passed the ball very well in that first quarter, with a few unsuccessful shots on their goal, but PV's first two breaks on us resulted in two goals to take the wind out of us a bit. Jack Broadhurst in goal for the first three quarters today, made a great save towards the end of the first period - really pushing the ball around the post to keep the score at something that we could work with. End Q1: PV 2 - Arrows 0.

Q2 began and we completely dominated the play - our movement was even better than before on the whole and our passing was great; our defence and goalkeeping were solid but the only thing that wouldn't click for us was our striking - we hit the post a couple of times, placed their goalkeeper under immense pressure and narrowly shot wide more times than I care to mention! Every time PV had a sniff of the ball we were on them and regained it - it was a great period of play for us. End Q2: PV 2 - Arrows 0.

The third quarter kicked off and we did invite pressure on us at times, but overall we dealt with it well - again we looked really comfortable on the ball and were passing it to both Left and Right Midfield accurately and stretching PV at times. We had a great break at one point which started with Oli Wrigley who passed to Sam Curtis who in turn crossed it over to Jack Binns who slotted it home to take us to 2-1. Myself and Darren really thought that we were back in it then, but within a minute or two from kick off, PV split our team with a great passing move and finished well to restore their two-goal advantage. Towards the end of the quarter PV hit a fortuitous ball which took a really odd bounce and looped over Jack to take the score at the end of Q3 to PV 4 - Arrows 1.

Q4 kicked off and we played well again, but once or twice we started to play a bit deep which put us under unnecessary pressure and one of these instances resulted in some confusion in our box with PV happily jumping on the opportunity to score again and taking the result to its conclusion of PV 5 - Arrows 1.

I have to say, I'm really happy with the boys today, despite the loss - our results from last season against PV were 5-1, 5-1, 8-5 and 4-1 so you could argue that on the whole we are fairly consistent against this team! However we have a real opportunity to close the gap on them, by being slightly more focussed at times and also to sharpen up in front of goal - something that we can definitely work on in training over the next few weeks.

Finally Ryan, the PV coach came over to talk to me towards the end of the match and commented that we are by far the best team he has come across in terms of pressing the ball and smothering the opportunities for the opposition - I take great pride in this as its an area we've really worked on in the last nine months or so - we just need to become more clinical in our finishing!

Next up is Tarvin who, from what I can make out have entered one team (their strongest out of three) into our league - PV lost 6-1 to them last week so we need to be ready for yet another very competitive match.

See you Friday.

Thanks,

Carl

AFC Waverton U9 Arrows
07896 515717

Match Report: Waverton Arrows 0 - Malpas Blacks 7

My original mail is included below, but I was sent a text last night from the Malpas coach to say that he thought we had overall played really well as the team we played today had a match versus the Waverton Jets (top league) at the end of last season and beat them by ~3 goals which likely, knowing John, means more. He also informed me that Malpas beat last weekends opponents 28-0, so whilst I can honestly feel a little better now, I still think there is some important learning to be had... From a league perspective though, this is now two weeks in a row that we have played teams that really shouldn't of been pitched against us, however this is a problem that the league has caused (there were supposed to be four leagues, not three this year) so I'll be bringing this up in early November at the next league meeting.

Original mail:

Ultimately a really disappointing morning where we started off well like last week, but as the game went on we invited all sorts of pressure onto ourselves which Malpas happily punished us for.

Q1 started really well, with us pushing the ball around nicely - a few breaks from Malpas were dealt with comfortably by the team and the shots that were made against us were well handled with Oscar making a controlled return in goal. Towards the end though, one of these breaks did split our defence and Malpas went into the break 1-0 up.

Q2 began and immediately we started to fall back quite a bit, our defence was playing within yards of goal and that then dragged our midfield players towards the halfway line and any passes up to our forwards pretty much ended up being intercepted by Malpas who were now starting to get into their rhythm and hit us with two further goals. End of Q2: Arrows 0 - Malpas 3.

Before Q3 started, I had a long talk about using our positioning better, and that we needed to stop being dragged into areas that we shouldn't be in - what I meant by this was that Defence shouldn't really be in the opposition half, and Attackers shouldn't find themselves behind our Defence! What seems clear now is that the boys seemed to think I was telling them to not really move from a particular spot as we spent most of this quarter rooted right in front of goal which blinded our keeper and obviously just invited pressure again from the opposition and at times even more than before; we really were punished in this section by four further goals, whereas at the beginning of it I honestly thought we could get back into the game. End of Q3: Arrows 0 - Malpas 7.

Before the final quarter - I asked the boys to refocus and try to win this last section of the game; to remember what we used to say last season, quite simply 'When we lose the ball, we hunt it down and win it back quickly' - we actually did play relatively well in this last period - our passing improved and elements of the squad really tried to push forward. We had great chances from Sam Curtis, Tom, Jack Broadhurst and towards the very end, Jack Binns but each shot either went just over/wide or directly to the keeper. A great shot from Malpas after an impressive move hit the side-netting when most parents I think thought it had gone in, but Oscar had it well covered. The match ended as it did in the third quarter: End of Q4: Arrows 0 - Malpas 7.

Looking back over the match, which I've done for most of the day to be honest (!) we just seemed generally quite lethargic and not willing to really chase down that ball to win it back, or to take it past a Malpas player when we did have it. There are some exceptions to this, but generally its something we've really got to turn around. I'll talk to the boys about positioning and what it means again, i.e. not being rooted! on Friday.

I think the last two games have been really interesting, for different reasons, and sets us up well for next week, which will undoubtedly be an ultra-competitive, but hopefully one that is played with good intentions and in the right manner/spirit. I will send out the squad tomorrow - thanks everyone for providing your availability.

See you Friday.

Carl
AFC Waverton U9 Arrows
07896 515717

Match Report: Groves FC 7 - AFC Waverton Arrows 0

Back in the rain, against a team that to be honest are at a much higher level than us at the moment...

Regarding Groves FC - they were in the 'B' League last season (the one above us) and were very competitive; the Waverton Rockets couldn't beat them across several attempts. Groves also played one of the Upton teams in our league last week and beat them 14-1 so this match has to be taken with this context in mind. The likelihood is that they will move back up to the middle league later in the year.

To the game and we actually started extremely brightly; keeping our composure and our positions and releasing the ball to our attackers quickly and accurately - the size of the pitch was massive though (it was move like a 9v9 pitch) and over the course of the game it did have an adverse effect on the boys. End of Q1 was a well fought Groves 0 - Arrows 0.

I made a few changes in Q2 (looking back too many to be honest - more on changes later) and Groves really upped their game and the pressure on our defenders was starting to show. Two relatively quick goals made our heads drop a bit and we went into the break at the end of Q2: Groves 2 - Arrows 0.

Q3 began and the rain was really starting to come down now - this made the grass and the ball very greasy, but it was the same for both teams so we shouldn't use that as an excuse. Groves were in their stride now and really  punished us in this quarter, dragging the boys out of position and hitting us in the open spaces left behind resulting in 3 further goals with no reply from us. End of Q3: Groves 5 - Arrows 0.

I asked the boys before going back out for the final quarter to remember just how well we had played against Blacon two weeks earlier and to go out and try to recreate that in this final period. The boys really went for it and we finally started to play like I wanted us too - we were strong on the ball (like at Blacon) and we were really putting their defence and goalkeeper under considerable pressure, but huge respect to their goalkeeper - he was really on it today, especially in that final period and absolutely nothing was getting past him. We had so many efforts but unfortunately it wasn't to be. With our boys going for it, a few holes opened up again and we were hit with two further goals by Groves to take us to the end of the quarter and the match, Groves 7 - Arrows 0.

I said to the boys afterwards that I wasn't too disheartened by the result knowing what I did regarding Groves prior to the match - it gave us more exposure to a team that have been playing at a higher level for more than two seasons now. We do need to work on a few things though - keeping our concentration and being disciplined in our positions is vital now - we can't afford for players to drift as it completely unbalances the team - I'll be working on that again this week in training.

Regarding changes during matches - I will be implementing something different over the next 4-6 games, and then if positive we will continue going forward. Rather than make wholesale changes in each quarter, the boys starting the match will continue throughout and will come off if something isn't working that day or they need some time to rest, for me to talk to them 1-2-1 regarding tactics/positioning, etc. A lot of other teams do this already but I've been trying to rotate as many boys as possible still, but we really need to move away from that now (as mentioned at the end of last season). All boys selected for a match will see game time with subs made during match play to make it all a bit more fluid.

Malpas is next up on Saturday - this should be a home fixture but will confirm early next week.