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