U11 Youth - Halliford Colts U9s
Youth lost 4-2 to Halliford Colts and my match report will again be bemoaning the standard of refereeing and probably end up with a fine from the FA. The difference this week was we were treated to a genuine part-time referee paid for by Halliford, so you’d think he’d be pretty good. Not so much today.
We lost today, yet again playing the better football. If we had genuinely played rubbish or the other side were a level above where we are, I could happily take it, but to be on the receiving end of yet more crap decisions is very difficult to take and its hard for the kids as well. We should be talking about what we did great and what didn’t go well, not the performance of the guy with the whistle.
It started in the first 2 mins, where a bouncing ball in our own box hit one of our players on the hand and he’s blown up straight away, running and pointing to the spot like he’s on tv. Its Under 9s 7v7 and to jump on that in the first few minutes was really tough for the boys. Even the opposition manager was in disbelief at the decision. Isaac dived the right way but couldn’t stop Halliford’s opener as it was a well taken penalty into the corner of the net.
As a team, we again had the majority of the possession, looking to ‘Keep the Ball!” making our passes count and we did that really well. The passing out from the back from Jos, Finley, with Gabriel pulling the strings in the midfield and then wide to Ari and Eddie had the applauds of the oppo manager, even using Isaac on occasion to recycle the ball but always looking to make the pass to our player. Our corner routines are also creating opportunities every time. Maybe we are gambling on the wrong position in the box as a number of corners flashed straight across the face of their goal just needing a touch into the net.
Q2 continued in much the same way. Most of the match was in Halliford’s half with them playing on the break. The one bit of possession they had saw an excellent through ball to their striker splitting our defence in two with the striker sliding his shot across Isaac into the corner of the net. That was their best move of the entire match and that was in Q2.
Q3 had us playing with the sun behind us after a clever decision by our captain Eddie to play into the sun in the first half. For this quarter we played in an experimental line-up with Harrison playing in the centre as playmaker for the first time this season and Eddie playing the Paul Warhurst striker role up front and we totally bossed the quarter. Harrison who rightly won the Player of the Match for his performance in the centre popping up everywhere. His cross into the box had Halliford all over the place and ended with them putting into the top corner of their own net. This quickly followed with arguably the best move of the match which started with Ari at left back, through Gabriel and into Harrison who put through Phoenix to score the equaliser. It was one way traffic. Then the most contentious decision of the match. Another sweeping move found Gabriel on the edge of the box whose powerful shot went in off the underside of the crossbar bouncing over the goal line and the referee ruled it hadn’t crossed the line. Someone should give Specsavers a call as they have a star for their latest tv ad campaign. If that wasn’t hard enough to take, Halliford, broke away in the last minute of the quarter, we managed to get back, but we stood off them entirely and a speculative shot ricocheted off one of our defenders and ended up in the roof of the net. It was hard to take after being so in control of the quarter.
Q4 was again more of the same, but Halliford had more play with both sides looking tired. Again the referee stole the show after Phoenix skinned two players on the edge of the penalty box and was promptly dumped onto the ground only for the referee to wave play to continue while he was left in tears. The highlight of the half was a Gabriel pile-driver from mid way in Halliford’s half that went like a bullet and hit the inside of the left post only to fire back across the goal and go out for a throw on the other side of the pitch. Oh, and Halliford broke away again and scored their 4th goal.
I don’t think I could ask any more of the players today. The pitch was the usual grassroots soggy muddy affair, so was to be expected. Maybe we didn’t keep the ball as well as I know we can in places, but playing against a decent Halliford side and having them on the back foot for most of the match is hard enough, without having to play against the referee as well. We are not getting the rub of the green at the moment and that’s really difficult to take as there’s nothing we can do as coaches apart from letting them know that are doing everything we’ve asked of them. Our luck must change at some point as we are most definitley in credit.
