U11 Yellows - Pro Elite
Two styles collide
I think this is the first time, at U11s, I seen a team play a low block for the entire game and the opposition manager shout instructions and commentate for 80 minutes. A truly unique experience lets say!
The low block posed us with a new challenge, along with the constant threat of the long ball, as there was no inclination to play out from the back. I guess their game plan was to hit us on the counter attack and utilise their two best players – the striker and attaching midfielder, which worked because 3 of their goals came from break aways and playing in behind us.
We got off to a great start. Five minutes in, Max was fouled inside the box and calmy finished the penalty that followed.
In the second quarter we extended our lead, playing out from the back through Henry, who calmly played a forward pass into Joshua’s feet, who then dribbled down the right wing before crossing for Max Poole to finish at the back post.
Towards the end of the second quarter, we got caught napping and conceded two goals. The first from a cross, where we didn’t react the quickest in the box, and then from a ball in behind, where we got caught a bit flat at the back, leaving space in behind for their striker to run into and finish in a 1v1 with Aiden.
In the third quarter, against the run of play, we went behind early on after a mistake playing out from the back. But we reacted brilliantly as a team. Goal machine Joshua scored, assisted by Max Ramsden who at the time only had one boot on. Hat’s off to Max for the assist – his pass eliminated two players and put Joshua in the perfect position to score, and the ref for allowing play to continue.
Going into the last quarter, it was all square and we decided to do things the hard way, giving two early goals away. One from a freekick where our marking was suspect, and the other from a break away where we didn’t track the run from midfield and were outnumbered at the back.
Again, credit to the boys, they showed resilience, kept their heads up, kept believing and continued trying to find ways to break down the low block. During this time, Kaiden was unlucky not to score, smashing a shot off the bar, and Patrick came very close to score from the edge of the box, only to see it narrowly miss.
Determination paid off and we scored from a flowing team moved started by Max Poole who drove forward with the ball from the middle of the pitch and into the final third, released a pass to Max Ramsden on the right who then dribbled into the box, had a shot which was blocked but fell into the path of Joshua, who tapped it in. 4-5 – Game on.
Our tails were up now as we had the momentum. Joshua got his hat trick after Patrick gathered the ball in midfield, went forward, taking 2 players on in the process, and passed to Josh on the edge of the box, who cleverly finished into the bottom left with a reverse shot across the keeper – clever finish. 5-5
Moments later, Joshua was so close to making it 4 goals for him and 6-5 to us, but his shot across the keeper hit the post and went out for a goal kick.
Our winning goal was a ‘worldie’, scored by player of the match - Max Poole, who scores goals like this for fun in training. He connected perfectly with the ball from the edge of the box, and there was no stopping it as it whizzed past the keepers left and in off the post.
Shortly after this, the final whistle went, the come back was complete and football won the day!
Whilst Pro Elite style of play was the opposite to ours and not the prettiest, I’m pleased we got this challenge, as there’s no doubt teams will play against us like this in the future. Lots of learning taken from the game, that the boys will definitely be able to draw upon in the future.
So, another entertaining game to add to our catalogue of entertaining games this season, and the perfect ending to the JPL season for these boys who fully deserved the victory.
As always thank you from the support from the sidelines and well done to all the boys – they all played their part.
