Match Report: Waverton Arrows 2 - Groves 2

The last time we played Groves was early October and they beat us 7-0 after our boys played very much within themselves and we struggled to pass and play positively. We were a completely different team today, albeit with its own intricacies and areas for improvement.

Myself and a fellow Waverton u10 coach found ourselves walking around the Waverton field at 9am trying to ascertain if our respective matches could take place such was the cold and ground frost we woke up to – we were due to play on different parts of the field and slightly different KO times (we were later) – we came to the decision that the u10’s wouldn’t play as their pitch was too hard in places, but that ours was possible due to our pitch being on an area of ground that hadn’t been used for a bit so was relatively fresh with no hard areas. I spoke with the Groves manager to confirm he was happy (and he was), so it was game on!

We went for our 2x 25min halves today and it really is starting to suit us – our use of subs is working on the whole really well during overall match-play. We began H1 and I was initially worried as Groves played very positively and camped themselves in our half – some close shots were saved or seen out by Oscar who’s shot-stopping skills are growing week on week. After this initial period of pressure though, we started to click and pushed on into the oppositions half and some of our passing continued on from the last few weeks, really putting the opponent under pressure and making opportunities for ourselves. One such really positive move saw Sam Curtis cut in from the left and bury it low into the bottom right to take us to 1-0. It wasn’t long after that, that we applied so much pressure – wave, upon wave of attacking the ball so close to the goal that we caused Groves to score an own goal to take us to two up.

From that point on, we did seem to start to slow down play, both in a positive (breaking up Groves’ play) but also in a negative way at times as our own play started to become a little scrappy, with us not connecting with the ball as well as we should and our decision making not being as sharp as I have seen in the last few games. At one point, Groves passed the ball into their number 5 who turned like a barge to be honest (or maybe it was just me who saw it in slow motion!) – he had 4 Waverton players on him, but was still able to rifle it into the top of the net to take us to an end of half: Arrows 2 – Groves 1.

H2 began and we started well, pushing the ball around positively for the first few minutes, but then we started again to play within ourselves – things like, not quite getting to the ball at times, or not following through a positive kick, or running to clear the ball and taking our eyes off it at the last moment to make the clearance or pass not as strong as it normally would be – I’m sure it was the coldness of the morning to be honest, but more on that in a bit. A great bit of play from Groves resulted in them equalising – this was after about 10 minutes or so into the half and meant we had a very interesting final 15 minutes on our hands!

The game was very much played on the whole in this final 15 minutes in the middle third – it was a real battle, and our midfield was resolute to be fair – we missed some challenges, but made most. The thing that was frustrating throughout the period was again we were just not as on it as I’ve seen that we can be – our breaks were slower than normal and we at times started to play ‘a bit nice’ in terms of not competing for every ball. Our attacking boys went so close on a few occasions, especially in the dying minutes, but then the momentum would swing back to Groves who had a fair few chances of their own – each one was taken care of though by our defensive unit. The game ended 2-2 with both myself and the Groves coach, Al, both thoroughly mentally and physically exhausted!

A month or so ago we would of lost this game – our heads would of gone, having let the other team back in, plus with the temperature, as we’ve seen in the past would have given the other team the advantage – we are adapting though and learning so much as we go from game to game.  We can now see out a game, whilst still trying to nick it – it’s great to see and overall I’m happy today (I’ll always pick holes in things and look for improvement, but that’s what I’m here for). The boys came off the pitch and everyone seemed happy – they really knew they’d had a game; I know that it was cold but again everyone spoke about how well we’d played. This means we are now unbeaten in two, going into our next shield game against another Ellesmere Port side!

I haven’t yet called out everyone today, not on purpose, but due to so much going on, but I’ll summarise here; Oscar was solid in goal today; Elliott, OMG and Sam Cheetham played well in defence, containing and clearing the ball when needed. Harry in his defensive midfield role both assisted the defence and helped launch attacks; Sam Curtis, Oliver Wrigley and Jack Broadhurst powered forward and tried to make things happen today and were supported well by Tom (who had a great impact in AM and RM roles today) and Sion when they came on to try to push the team forward.

A final couple of thanks; Damon first of all for being our ref today; Rob for keeping the subs warm throughout the entire match (the boys loved it!) and everyone that helped set up and break down the pitch.

See you all on Friday at training.

Carl
AFC Waverton U9 Arrows
07896 515717

Match Report: Waverton Arrows 6 - Upton Jaguars 4

We played our second Shield match this weekend against a team that is normally in our league and have proved to be a well organised and attacking team in the past.

I pushed for the game to be 2 x 25 min periods that proved to be a better format for us, having played this previously and successfully against Ellesmere Port Rangers a few weeks ago. I’d also selected the team to have starting players and subs which was new to us this week; both worked fantastically well for us today so I’ll look to continue going forward.

H1 began and we were on the front foot; immediately attacking the ball and pressing Upton – there was some great movement and our fantastic passing was back and evident this week (can you guess what we focussed on last night in training ?!?). After a period of persistent play from us we won a corner and Jack Binns’ pressure on the opposition made them succumb to an opening own goal. From the kick off we went again and quickly scored a second through Oli Wrigley who looked really up for it today (with a smile on his face which is always great to see). After a few subs (Sam Ch for Jack Br, and Henry for Harry) we continued to keep our shape on the whole and battled for every ball. Oli Wrigley broke again and quickly closed on the ball after a great passing move and scored to take us to what seemed a comfortable end of half – Arrows 3 – Jaguars 0.

The boys were in good spirits during the break and were eager to begin the second half. It was clear very quickly though that the Upton coaches had been in the ear of their boys and they started off the second half like we did in the first – we were very sluggish in getting on to the ball and Upton capitalised on this and hit us with two quick goals – we suddenly found ourselves at a very nervy (for me anyway!) 3-2.

The Upton coaches were getting excited now but we just had to stay calm – Harry in his Defensive Midfield role gave us that calmness today, winning most of the balls and then distributing well. A great example of this was Harry winning a great battle with a number of Upton boys, and then feeding Jack Br the ball who made a great strike to restore a bit more of a comfortable margin. Within minutes of kick off that gap became wider again, with Oli W scoring his hat-trick which I know he was after, being so close to it after our recent Ellesmere Port game. Not long after the resultant kick off, Upton pulled one back to take us to 5-3.

After the kick off, we pressed again and what has to be said again some excellent passing through the entire team, Oli W took his tally to 4. Some of the boys started to flag a bit so a bit of space opened up to give Upton the opportunity to take a goal back. The last five minutes though, we were thoroughly dominant and controlled the ball well – protecting the lead and not making any silly mistakes which was great to see, as we need to learn how to close off matches when we are ahead – this was a great beginning to that process. End of the game - Arrows 6 – Jaguars 4.

All the boys today played their part – Oscar is getting some confidence in goal, Max, OMG and Sam Ch are really reading the play well and their positional awareness is getting stronger. Harry and Henry are great in that defensive midfield role which gives them a bit of license to get forward and break up play much higher up the pitch – along with a few opportunities to shoot too! Oli Barnes was chasing down the ball well too, and was starting to use his body against some of the Upton boys so we’ll look at that too in the coming weeks. Finally our front attacking line of Jack Binns, Oli Wrigley and Jack Broadhurst are really developing a great understanding together and proving to be more than a handful for any of the teams we are facing at the moment. Well done to everyone.

Next week is against Groves which I’m really looking forward to – email regarding availability is due to be released shortly.

Thanks all,

Carl

AFC Waverton U9 Arrows
07896 515717

Match Report: Tarvin 7 - Waverton Arrows 2

Hi All,

Yet another competitive game where we are playing so much better than the end result suggests – our last game three weeks ago against Tarvin ended 8-3 so at least we are consistent in terms of a 5-goal margin!

At times we sometimes individually and then collectively drift through sections of the match, for instance we weren’t on it from kick off and 30 seconds later we were picking the ball out of the net after Tarvin seemed to run through all of our team to score. We picked ourselves up though and started to play our game – a ‘worldie’ from Tarvin’s Emily (a volley from a great drop ball pass just outside the box) took us to 2-0 down but we kept our heads up and went for it – some great passing from the back, through Harry in midfield out to Jack Br ended with a great strike to bring us back into the game at the end of the first quarter – Tarvin 2 – Arrows 1.

The second quarter went against us and it’s here that I think the game started to slip away – we were winning the ball across all areas of the pitch, but then instead of looking for the pass like we did last week against Ellesmere Port, we brought the blinkers on and tried to run repeatedly at Tarvin to try and beat them; they took advantage of this, and three times hit us on the break to take the end of Q2 to – Tarvin 5 – Arrows 1.

After a few words to the boys in the break, they kicked off the third quarter and really ran at Tarvin – there were moments of good passing, but on the whole we were chasing the play for large portions – some great saves were made, but a fair few scrambles away from goal were needed which showed we were starting to play too deep and too close to our goal. Tarvin made a break on us again and scored another well struck shot, but that was soon countered by a great dribbling run by OMG through the entire length of the field to slot the ball in to bring us to Tarvin 6 – Arrows 2.

The boys in the final break were ready to try to take it to Tarvin in the last period and I think, similar to the first quarter, we played at times our best football; we succumbed to a goal via a bit of a scramble midway through, but overall in this period we dominated and towards the end we did a beautiful passing move that went through about 5 Tarvin players but we just couldn’t finish it off – it summed up the game as a whole to be honest. End of Q4 and the game: Tarvin 7 – Arrows 2.

As always, I’m immensely proud of our boys – I wasn’t expecting to meet Tarvin again for a while, but had hoped that we would be more competitive after coming off our last game vs. Ellesmere Port. Yet again I’ve been told we provide the best competitive match (that’s four teams now – and they really aren’t blowing smoke up the proverbial!) – we are competitive, extremely so, but we need to find a consistency that will enable us to turn the good performances into good wins. It will come, I am sure of that and the creation of two teams, where the same boys playing in their dedicated teams week in week out will only help to accomplish this.

A quick word on the Shield competition – we are now for the next few months no longer playing league matches, but instead we are playing in a Cup/Shield round-robin then knock-out competition. Because we won last weekend against EP, it bumped us up the league standings a bit which meant we have found ourselves in a harder draw! Initially I was annoyed compared to what I have seen other teams draw, but now see it for what it is – when we come out of this period (playing against strong teams every week), we will be far stronger ourselves collectively when we re-enter our league fixtures. Just something to think about when we play for the next couple of months.

To reiterate, I was proud of every single boy today – there is much to do, but thanks to Jack Binns, Sam, Harry, Elliott, Max, Oliver Wrigley, Tom, OMG and Jack Broadhurst for collectively trying to be as competitive as possible and trying to push us on.

Finally - 13 out of 14 boys are available next week, against a team that currently sits in the middle league – it’s going to be a very difficult selection for me – please try to understand this when the squad is released.

Thanks all.

Carl
AFC Waverton U9 Arrows
07896 515717

Plans for the U9's going forward

Hi All,

I mentioned over the summer that match-day squads would be selected not for rotations sake but in order for us to be competitive against the other teams that rightly or wrongly are in the league with us. On the whole though, I’ve still tried to be as fair as possible in terms of selection. In addition to this I’m also aware that we as a club have been turning new boys away when they want to join - this has not sat very well with me in that I originally offered to create the Arrows because boys who wanted to play and not just train were not given that opportunity.

Currently within the Arrows we have 14 boys registered and 2 boys (Larry & Finlay) who currently just train. As mentioned there are a number of other boys who have registered an interest in joining us. I have therefore spoken to the AFC Waverton chairman and other coaches across age groups and there is a clear desire for me to create what would be a 4th U9 team that would commence training ASAP and would compete in the same league as the Arrows, beginning in the New Year. I have agreed to do this so have been planning accordingly over the last 2-3 weeks.

I’d now like to share that plan with you which is as follows:

·         We will have 2 teams in the Yellow League (this is the third league at our age level), the Arrows and the newly formed Dynamos. Each team will have ~10 boys aligned to it.

·         This means that some boys currently in the Arrows will continue to be selected for this team until the end of the year, after which they will transition to the new team.

·         Both teams will train side by side at the County Offices on a Friday evening. We will likely move to a bigger pitch and share costs between the two (like we did with the Rockets last season).

·         This format means that every boy will be selected to play automatically each week – the only reason for not playing will be down to a players own availability.

·         This means that ~20 boys will be playing competitive football each weekend from the New Year.

·         It is anticipated that progression within each squad will grow at a greater rate than as it stands today – this is due to training together in the respective teams and playing week in, week out in a smaller group.

·         I will organise matches for both teams.

·         I will create and define training across both teams that will be delivered by parent helpers that have stepped forward, offering to assist. I will be present each week and will cover both groups and provide dedicated assistance where needed. This element is similar to what happens today.

·         During match-days, the current plan is for Darren to manage one team and I manage the other. Each week we will swap, but both of us will be assisted by parent helpers.

·         Ultimately, I will say it again – this provides an opportunity for all boys to play each week – it’s one of the things we all wanted 16+ months ago.

In addition to the 14 boys we already have signed up, as mentioned we also have Larry & Finlay – I hope that both will join also. For parents that were there last Friday night, they would have seen Kailen make his training debut – he looks like a decent player that can help us. Also we have another Waverton school boy that will hopefully join us from Friday for training.

Ultimately that gives us 18 boys – I have sent mails to parents that have in the last few months asked for places. If they have found alternate teams, I will look to still seek 2 further boys to bring us to 10 each – I think this then gives us some flexibility and cover for when boys are obviously away. The Arrows have two matches against Upton in the next two weeks, after that we have a weekend off – on that date I’m hoping to have at least the 18 players attend a 2-hour session in order for us to train together further.

One final thing – I plan to review the progress of each player obviously throughout the year, but at touch points in December and June if a player needs to move between teams in order to benefit their progression then that decision will be made accordingly.

There is obviously lots more that I could write, so if you have any questions on this, please do let me know – it’s really important to me, and something that I think will benefit every single boy within the two squads.

Thanks as always.

Carl

AFC Waverton U9 Arrows
07896 515717

Match Report: Ellesmere Port Rangers 4 - AFC Waverton Arrows 8

Hi All,

I’m going to try to keep this brief tonight as there will likely be a longer one coming out tomorrow regarding intended plans for the U9’s.

The best summary I can write at the moment, both watching the match and replaying it in my head today is that our work on the training pitch over the last three weeks really paid off. Our positioning was fantastic across the pitch – defensively we were strong; our midfield was competitive, fighting for every ball and making some great bursts forward taking on multiple boys with some great footwork and flair, and our attackers buried their chances whilst coming close with others and also linking up fantastically well, creating opportunities for their team-mates whenever possible. It truly was a great team effort today and the game flowed brilliantly. Last but not least our goalkeepers were great – it’s a difficult position to play in but the three boys that covered it today did the team proud.

Today we overcame some obstacles that in the past would have thrown us – it was an earlier start than normal (we were up for it from the start and carried the performance levels throughout the entire match – something we have never done). It was the first time that we played 2x 25 minute halves instead of 4x 12-15 minute quarters – we actually seemed to play better with this format as it again enabled us to keep the flow going. Having a match day squad of 9 has also worked better than when taking 10; it enables the boys playing to get more time on the pitch and less swapping and changing around.

It’s interesting that out of the three teams we have played so far that should be in our league (Blacon, Princes Villa and Ellesmere Port) we have won two and lost the one – that’s a great measure of where we are and how we have improved and I actually think that the last four weeks or so that we have played the teams that should be in a higher league (Groves, Malpas and Tarvin) has actually helped us to raise our game to an extent.

All the boys seemed really happy coming off the pitch today – a call out has to go to the four boys that scored today: Oli Wrigley with 2, OMG with 1 (a blistering run from defence to slot it home with confidence), Tom with a welcome 2 goals and Jack Broadhurst with 3, including a great headed effort!

Jack Binns, Henry and Sam Curtis in Midfield, along with Elliott and OMG in Defence (I went for two there today and it paid dividends!) and Oscar, Jack Binns and Sam Curtis in Goal all deserve a well done.

The next two games are interesting – first up is Upton Jaguars who were in our league last year and always give us a good game, and following that are the new Upton Wildcats who were the Upton Dev squad last year and have been finding it difficult so far (just like we did last year) – both matches will throw up different challenges I’m sure.

As mentioned, this was a brief one so I’m going to leave it there – please look out for the U9 mail that should be out tomorrow.

Thanks all.

Carl

AFC Waverton U9 Arrows
07896 515717