U10s' A local Derby - a day of woes

23 November 2008

First Period

Team lined up for this local derby within Nathan in goals, the defence was Ian, Tom Alex, Calvin Miles and Dan took the midfield and attack duty.

Bradon was injured from the start, but Will and Patrick waited patiently for their turn.

From the start it was clear that Sports were a good team who were here to play good football and had no hesitation in passing the ball round.

Ian Finney made some good early challenges which helped to snuff out the early pressure, and after the usual mid field battle the first chance fell to Albion with a corner. Alex took the corner, a header from Tom sadly went wide of the posts.

Pressure saw a shot from Alex causing confusion in the Sports defence and in the confusion we tried for a tap in but the strike from Dan went wide.

We certainly had to stay on our guard, a free kick for Sports was a good one but Ian got the block in to save the day.

We now started to get some good passing moves together but we were all guilty of standing and watching when the ball broke to Sports and were slow to close them down an example of this was a break from Sports, Tom missed the tackle and Ian put a challenge in but the shot was still a good one and Nathan put a good save in to shovel the ball away for a corner.

Dan was now substituted with Will taking his place. As the period progressed Sports were certainly the stronger side and most of our team seemed a little slow and sluggish.

We still created chances, Alex had a shot just wide and we made a great break down the left wing with Will and Miles working well together to pass the ball between themselves and out foxing the defence but the final strike was saved well by the goalkeeper.

Second period

No changes to our line up, and we started brighter, an early corner for Albion was met by Calvin but again the Sports goalkeeper was able to save.

It started to seem like it may not be our day, a great shot by Ian went just wide of the left hand post and a great shot by Alex again saved by the keeper. We still however had to keep on our guard, we were let off the hook when after a scramble in the penalty area our players were on the floor but the Sports shot cleared the bar.

Finally the break came. A long goal kick from Alex found its way all the way to Will who very calmly slotted it past the keeper, 1-0 Albion.

This opened the game up and Miles and Calvin were now showing great work rate in the middle with mazey runs that worried the opposition and great shots saved by the keeper.

Will had found his footwork and was now putting in some great runs past the defence but again and again we couldn’t find the final shot to get the goal.

The equaliser for sport came from an Albion corner, our usual tactic of leaving one player back in defence meant that when Sports broke out and got around that player the goal was easy to score. 1-1.

Our boys were now rising to the challenge, Alex was putting in tremendous shots and Ian Finney putting in a fantastic defensive performance.

Third Period

Really this period can be summed up by saying that we had some great shots and great chances but they all just missed the target, the boys work rate went up and they tried but couldn’t find that winning touch

Patrick was doing his bit with some great saves and this game really was there for either side to snatch

Dan made a re-appearance as Calvin and Miles had to leave the game, this also threw Nathan into a defensive role.

Sadly the winning strike came from Sports as the ball broke to Sports just outside our area and a good shot hit the back of the net. Albion 1 sport 2

Our guys certainly carried on working like mad to get this back but sadly the time ran out and a second defeat of the season was sealed by the refs whistle.

Summary

To be fair a slow start, but once we got going we worked hard and had some great chances and one of those days where it just doesn’t go your way.

Source: J Higginson

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