Boys U10's Thunder - Kineton Juniors U10
After almost 2 weeks off due to half-term and bonfire night, we travelled to Kineton for an early kick-off, slightly apprehensive about how the break might impact us, particularly as we were facing a strong Kineton team who gave us a very tough game last time we played them.
We needn't have worried however, the boys arrived bright-eyed and bushy tailed and they started the game with a bang. It took just three minutes for us to score our first goal, Jake scoring an absolute gem from a tight angle just inside the box, finding the top corner for a 0:1 lead. Kineton looked a little shell-shocked and our boys proceeded to control the game with impeccable passing, team movement and team defence. Kineton had a number of quality players, their number 15 in particular, but everytime they thought they had got past one of our boys, another was there to take the ball away from them.
20 minutes into the half, we saw some great movement and a lovely pass from Jenson, over to Arthur who was on the edge of the box. Arthur released a powerful shot which bounced off the keeper into Noah's path. Noah still had some work to do in a congested space, but his poacher's instincts kicked in and he prodded the ball cleverly underneath the despairing keeper's dive for a 0:2 lead to the Thunder.
The rest of the half passed without incident and, to be honest, the coaches were unsure quite what to advise for the second half, other than just to try and do exactly the same again - the boys had been that good.
The performance levels were maintained for much of the second half but, after such superb efforts from across the board, some understandable fatigue did begin to set in and we started to lose our shape a bit. Kineton are a good team and all it took was one missed kick and a Kineton striker was through on goal & made no mistake, 1:2.
A few minutes later and it was a similar story with Kineton equalising the scoreline for 2:2. The boys continued to work their socks off and they didn't let their heads drop at all. It felt that, if a winner was to materialise, then it was more likely to be a Stockton winner than a Kineton one. That said, one of Kineton's quickest and most skilful players managed to break quickly down the wing, sucking in our defence before putting in a high quality cross for their unmarked striker to tap in on the back post.
The manner of the defeat was painful, the boys looked absolutely heartbroken, but the somewhat manic celebrations from the Kineton players was a clear demonstration that they knew they had been in a real battle and they were lucky to come away from this one with a win. A painful defeat, but an absolutely superb performance that the boys should be super proud of. Onwards!
