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 Arrows07896 515717
No comments:
Post a Comment