S&L Juniors U10 Whites - Friendly - S&L Blues

Home friendly on 9-aside pitch 5, for the first time!

Great experience and preparation for next year. The goals and pitch looked big, but as we're a good running/ passing team this may come to suit us.

Today was hard, as with no subs, we run ourselves into the ground. It was so even all the way through, just loosing three goals in the third, the score was worse than it may have been. It was very even to watch, and we probably had the better first half, then tired. We missed subs for rest and giving additional options.

Before the match we spoke about some new considerations: holding your position more to conserve energy, encouraging a few long shots and getting your foot through the ball when you shoot and pass.

One thing that may be improved was passing. This was partly due to not passing in possession and partly availability of players in good positions to pass to (10-15 paces away). We should come backwards towards the ball to receive, potentially hold up and wait for runners to come past to release ball. This'll be very hard to defend against!

There was then lots of individual possession on the edge of the oppo's box, three of their defenders against us and we struggled to get through.

To improve, in the fourth we spoke about trying to get around the outside, to the baseline, and cutting back inside to try and unlock some space.

With the bigger pitch, I did also feel our clearances and goal kicks were struggling to get over the oppo's midfielders. These were intercepted and gave the oppo a chance to attack us. Either try to pass to feet and short, or get it over the top and long. The middle option generally doesn't make it.

Forget about this result, this was a great first attempt on a very different pitch set up. Well done all! We're looking forward to next season's games and anticipate some great teamwork and improvement, like we had this year.