Boys U10's Thunder - Sky Blues in the Community U10 Hawks

The Thunder's unbeaten start to the season continued with a competitive, battling 2-2 draw against the Sky Blues.  We were missing two key players this weekend, in midfield and defence, so the team arrived at the pitch knowing they were going to have to put in a shift.  On the flip side, it certainly created lots of opportunities for the boys to shine and plenty of gametime for all. 

The Thunder arrived bright and early, some 20 minutes before the opposition, and it looked like we may have to start the game against a team of 6 players due to some late arrivals and the referee needing to get off to another game quickly afterwards.  Luckily, another 3 players arrived, 5 minutes after the scheduled kick-off, and the game began. 

We started like a train, and Oli, on solo coaching duty today (and needing a lie-down this afternoon due to the stress of it all) naively had a passing thought a few minutes in that 'this could be quite comfortable'.  Naïve it was indeed, but the thought was generated by the flowing yet controlled football the boys were playing.  It culminated, 8 minutes into the game, in a lovely through ball from Otto in midfield to Jake, who beat at least one defender with ease and powered the ball in the back of the net for a 1:0 lead. Nice. Later in the second half the Sky Blues begun to make a few changes, including bringing on at least one ringer who had no club kit at all and was wearing school socks so their coach had to tape shin pads to his bare legs.  The changes upped the tempo and the Sky Blues begun to look more dangerous as the first half came to a close, but we remained stalwart in our defence, not least because of the partnership of Ally and Edward which was superb throughout the game - and we were still creating chances of our own.

The second half started much as the first half had ended, with the boys working really hard for each other. The game felt evenly matched at this point. Due to only having one substitute, some of the boys were asked to play out of position with Arthur having a stint in midfield and both Noah & Charlie T both having a go on their less favoured left wing.  The effort could not be doubted but we did begin to lose our shape a bit, not surprisingly, and we started allowing sizeable gaps in behind, which the Sky Blues were able to take advantage of. It was 8 minutes into the second half when the Sky Blues ringer (who was rapid and skilful) used some of that available space and equalised the scores, 1:1.

Perhaps due to the number of changes, and a bit of fatigue kicking in, allied to the Sky Blues fielding a tall and strong striker who started pushing us around a bit, we struggled to find our rhythm for a while and it felt like we were on the back foot and relying on Edward and Ally to keep us in it with numerous timely tackles, intercepts and clearances. Despite this, the Sky Blues eventually capitalised with their striker creating a bit of space to place a powerful shot into the corner for a 2:1 lead.

Last season, our heads would have gone down at this point but it's clear that the boys have all matured as a unit and their game understanding is much improved. Whilst it's never nice to be behind on the scoreboard there was no panic and Charlie G kept us in the game with yet another strong performance in goal. It's lovely to see his confidence, and the confidence of his teammates in him, continue to go from strength to strength. 

Charlie T worked his socks off on both wings, the look of determination on his face when sprinting back to make some important tackles was lovely to see, allied to a number of quality passes and attacking runs. When Charlie begun to tire Jake then put in a superb stint on the right wing and Noah led the line really well, following on from his own great work on the wings earlier in the game.  Arthur worked hard for the team throughout but it was 3 minutes from the end that his moment came. Neatly collecting the ball from a quality pass from the back he beat 3 committed tackles from Sky Blues players down the wing and, just before the by-line, he put a perfect cross into the box.  Noah and Jake, despite the late stage of the game, had tracked his run and made a great effort to get into the box with ball falling nicely for Noah who put it away with casual aplomb, 2:2! 

The boys kept pushing and we had chances to win it right at the death, but a draw felt a fair result for the game as a whole.