Boys U10's Thunder - Southam United U10's Saints
This was a battling, messy game against our (new) ‘arch-rivals’ Southam U10 Saint’s, but we took away a solid 3:1 win with lots of positives and a few lessons too. In the age-old tradition of all good derby matches, there was plenty crunching tackles, goals, frustrated players & coaches and a bit of football too!
We started the game well but immediately got sucked into Southam’s disruptive ‘honey-pot’ style of play. With all 6 of the opposition out-field players crowding around the ball, we could have made life a lot easier for ourselves by keeping our width and trusting in our passing and crossing game. However, we found that a challenge and too often we were caught in possession in the middle of the park.
As we were struggling to get clean opportunities in open play it was no surprise that our first goal came courtesy of a set piece. Jake, who whipped in a number of deliciously dangerous corners through the game, flashed a ball across the face of the goal and Ronnie, who had made a great run into the middle of the area, bravely got his head on it to secure us a 1:0 lead.
The boys began to settle into the game and it seemed that the instructions from the sideline, to keep our width and shape, were starting to be listened to. Arthur was putting in a great shift on the left wing and begun to find space and time for a number of good passes and crosses, as well tracking back nicely to help in defence. Our second goal stemmed from a high-quality dribble from Noah, driving in from the right wing and putting in a great ball into Ronnie who, thanks to another timely run, was perfectly located to put the ball into the back of the net with calm assuredness for a 2:0 lead.
Finishing the second half on a high led to the half-time talk being along the lines of “keep doing what you are doing”, “dominate the tackle”, “put the game to bed” and other such whatnot. The boys seemed bright-eyed and engaged and the fact that both Stu and Arthur had to leave at half time to go to a party, didn’t seem to phase them at all.
All, however, was not quite as it seemed.. within 30 seconds of the restart we allowed Southam’s best player to waltz through most of our team, largely untouched and unchallenged, to find the corner with a good strike for a 2:1 scoreline. The game was back in the balance and it could easily have been 2:2 just 30 seconds later if it hadn't been for a superb last ditch block from Ally.
The boys were rocked and frustration begun to show with some players starting to get annoyed with one another and a few heads did start to droop. A shout out at this point to our defensive unit who were consistent and strong again. Jack started this early kick-off match seemingly still half asleep, but in the first half he focussed when it mattered and he built into the game really well. In the last quarter he was everywhere and well on really on top of his game.
Ally, who got the coaches MoTM award, was super solid - not just in his defensive duties but also with his comms and organisation of his teammates. His crucial block, to stop us conceding 2 goals within the first minute of the second half, was a game-changing moment. Well done Ally!
Charlie G was awarded the parents MoTM award. He didn’t get the opportunity to pull out many of his spectacular diving saves but he was busy, tidy and loud throughout, giving his backline confidence and setting off a number of attacks with some accurate kicks from hand.
Back to the game: our backs were up against the wall 10 mins into the second half and we needed some fresh impetus. It was a foul tackle from Jake, giving both himself and the opposition player a bit of a bump in the process, which seemed to inject that extra bit of spark and fight we needed to get ourselves back into it.
Otto, who did a great job for the team playing in three different positions during the game, moved off the right wing into midfield for a stint and played a few cracking through balls to Jake, one of which Jake then put away with class to recover our 2 goal cushion at 3:1. The team controlled the game through to the finish, with Charlie T industrious up and down the wing, showing some lovely touches and passes in attack and communicating well with his teammates. Noah, buzzing from his quality assist in the first half, coming back on in the dying minutes to help his teammates close the game out with lots of hard work in attack and defence.
We almost snuck another goal right at the death, with Jake hitting the woodwork, but a 3:1 margin of victory was a fair reflection given it wasn’t a vintage performance. We will take lots of lessons from this game however, not least in the importance of trusting each other and trusting our style of play no matter who we are playing.
Just to finish with a big thank you to David for refereeing again – despite it being an away game – and for our parents who helped the Southam coaches set up the goals and respect barriers before the match. It shows what a lovely group of people you are.. and it also shows that old habits die hard!
