Boys U10's Thunder - Leek Wootton U10's
A really tough one today, not our best performance and we got punished for it unfortunately. Leek Wootton fielded a physically strong and imposing team and it did look like that got into our heads, even before kick-off. We started the game hanging off, always a yard or two off the pace, and we were punished straight away with the big Leek Wootton striker being given too much space and banging in their first goal within the first two minutes (although we believe the ball went out during the move, so it should not have stood!).
To be fair, the boys did respond positively with some strong tracking back from Charlie T and Ronnie to snuff out a few attacks and some nice attacking play from Noah and Arthur but we were still allowing Leek Wootton to much space and time to play the game their way. Their second goal, 13 minutes into the half, came despite some strong tackles but the shot was a good one, right into the top corner.
With 10 minutes to play we made some substitutions with Jake, Otto and Edward coming on for Noah, Ronnie and Ally respectively. We were still playing with our backs against the wall and we needed Jack and Otto to step up with a number of important tackles, as well as Charlie G who kept us in the game with three or four top quality saves in the last 5 minutes of the half. However, unfortunately, the opposition got a corner right near the end and we were all guilty of ball-watching, allowing one of their strikers acres of space to put it in the back of the net to make it 3-0 on the stroke of half-time.
The half-time chat was focussed on needing to increase the work rate and commitment to the tackle, noting that we were playing down the infamous Leek Wootton slope in the second half. The theory was that Leek Wootton would tire at the back end of the game, so long as we kept the ball moving and made them do lots of running. With Arthur, Charlie T and Jack starting the second half on the bench we needed the boys on the pitch to start strong, and they did exactly that. Things started looking more positive with some flowing attacking football resulting in a few opportunities for Jake up front and some committed defence from Ally and Edward starting to bear fruit. Sadly though, the referee decided to give a very soft penalty against Otto and, despite a great effort from Charlie G who got both his hands to it, the penalty was scored for a 4-0 lead.
Charlie G was busy all afternoon and didn't let his head go down, producing more quality saves to prevent the scoreline getting worse. With regular rotations and substitutions the boys did all keep at it and we finally got some reward for our effort, a lovely corner ball from Charlie T being met in the middle of the box by Ronnie to pull it back to 4-1 with 4 minutes to go. There was a frisson of excitement from the sidelines as, despite a draw or win clearly being off the cards, hope for another goal to lift the spirits was most certainly alive. Sadly, the last action of the game was a ball and dribble straight through the middle of our team for a 5-1 final result.
Whilst not or best performance of the season, we will take a lot of learnings and positives from it for next week and beyond.
Onwards and upwards!
