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.
AFC Waverton U9 Arrows
07896 515717
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