U12 Panthers get a Thunderbolt - and lose their unbeaten record

The team lined up with Harry, Teddy, TC, Max, Morgan, Sam, George, Callum, Neil, Joe, Braden,  glowing in white and blue, to face the Meadowside Thunder team (the Meds) - resplendent in orange and black - to rise to the challenge of what on paper should have been their toughest game. The Meds lived up to their billing in every sense of the word “toughest”. The match got off to a lively start with the Panthers getting in the first attack of the game but that was not how things continued….. 

The match overall was fast paced with lots of attacks and counter attacks, however the Panthers started as is becoming too customary in a very jittery way as a team, and took some time to settle down. Morgan and Joe worked together so Joe could have a shot which was caught by the keeper. The Meds went on the offensive, only for Max, with a great sliding tackle, to clear the ball to Teddy, who promptly hoofed it, somewhat unnecessarily, out of the field and onto the road – “relax boys!!!” bawled the manager. Soon after Harry had to come out to save as the Meds attacked, losing the ball for a moment, the Meds took the chance of another try, but Harry got it quickly back under control. George’s break down the wing and Shorty’s cross into Braden meant Braden could then have a shot on goal, which was deflected by the goalie. The game featured an awful lot of shirt pulling, back pushing and ‘elbow work’ which wasn’t always picked up by the referee, however as the game progressed, he began picking up more of this activity, so more free kicks were given to the Panthers as time went on. A great move was started with Teddy clearing the ball, it being picked up by Shorty, who headed off up the wing, crossing through to Callum, whose shot was just blocked by the keeper. The ball was quickly passed up field by the Meds, and a panicky defence meant that Teddy ended up putting through (what one spectator called a suicide pass) the ball to Max, which the Meds gratefully intercepted and scored with. 1-0 to the Meds. The Panthers had been here before, and had always managed to pull the score back, however this time it felt different, in the immortal words of many Star Wars films, I commented ‘I’ve got a bad feeling about this...’. And so it proved, the Meds almost immediately scoring again after the kick off, making it 2-0, as Teddy and Neil - neither of whom had the confidence to put their name on the ball to clear it to the wings - paid the price for their indecision. 2-0 to the Meds. Substitutions duly made (Jamie, TJ, Adam, TB and Charlie came on for Morgan, Teddy, Callum, George and Max) the game restarted, with Jamie almost immediately being poleaxed by an elbow in the ribs, but as it was an off the ball incident and wasn’t seen by the referee - who had his eye on the ball - no action was taken. The teams moved the ball up and down the pitch as the Panthers tried to get back into the game, Adam holding the ball up well, while Joe and Jamie attacked. However the midfield conspired to do what they have consistently done all season and got caught with all of them in attacking positions, once again leaving the defence vulnerable. The Meds, seeing the opportunity, countered swiftly and inevitably, with big holes in the defence and no midfield to help out, Harry was left stranded with no hope of stopping goal number 3. It was 3-0 to the Meds with the Panthers improving, but not managing to finish their attacks with a goal, while Adam started to pick his first of too many offside offences.   So just like it seemed like the Panthers would spend the game struggling to hit the proverbial barn door, TC cleared the ball which was picked up by Adam, who passed to Braden, who was tackled by the Meds, however Adam retrieved it, passing again to Braden who put TJ through. With a great pass through to Jamie, TJ set up the Panthers' first goal, which Jamie put in the net over the keeper’s head to make it 3-1. Finally!

The Meds were back on the attack immediately, squashing any thoughts of a quick comeback as they won a corner, which the defence managed to clear. Stuart surprised the spectating parents with a timely reminder to the team (at high volume) of the need to keep to their positions. The Panthers attacked once more with Braden, Neil, Joe and Jamie combining, but the Meds frustrated their attempts. TC cleared the ball and using Harry effectively, with a pass managed to get the ball out of the path of the Meds and up to TJ. Next was Adam, who with a lovely sliding cross put Braden through to score with a deftly placed shot, bringing the score to 3-2, the fight-back was on!

Adam clearly fancied his chances for the next goal as he dribbled his way up fieldbrilliantly towards the Meds keeper, but held on to the ball too long and lost it to the Meds goalie. Yet another free kick was given to the Panthers for a foul, which Neil took, Shorty took advantage of this and headed up the wing at pace, with the Meds seemingly watching his progress, but not doing anything about it, until in the end he was tackled and lost the ball, it was very odd defensive behaviour! The half finished with the score at 2-3.

The second half resumed with the Meds kicking off, TB was right on it and his tackle and pass leading to Jamie putting through Braden, enabling him to have a shot on goal, which went to the keeper. A throw in for the Panthers saw TB passing to Jamie, who moved it on with a couple of touches to Braden who then did the same onto Adam, who moved it to Jamie, who crossed the ball into Joe, who couldn’t connect, and it went out for a goal kick. The kick wasn’t the best, and Adam put his head on it from within the Meds' half which meant that Neil, Jamie and Braden could combine in an attack before an offside was blown as Jamie mistimed his run. Jamie fumed at being caught. This became a recurring theme as offside was blown on several promising attacks, as Adam was continually caught out during the second half of the game. Joe was in his element with some great wing play, launching several attacks on the Meds goal. The Meds were not to be kept down though, an attack leading to Harry having a collision with one of their players as he courageously came out after the ball, limping slightly afterwards for a short time, but made a quick recovery. The following Meds attack saw a great shot coming in which was deflected over the goal by TC in the 6 yard box – another fine block by him. The Meds intensified their attacks and Harry was kept busy with shots as the game progressed, but handled the pressure well. Joe launched another attack, only for Adam to get caught offside once again. But it was TJ who had the best chance next with a pass from Joe giving him the opportunity to have a shot, dribbled around the defenders and going one on one with the keeper, shot it straight at the goalie who parried it, unable to capitalise on the rebound as the goalie pounced on the ball. This was similar to a chance he had in the first half where he dribbled into the box skilfully, but having done all that good work he chose (instead of laying an easy ball off to Jamie who was characteristically, in acres of space and no orange shirts near him) to continue to beat another two waiting defenders who blocked him off, meaning he could only shoot tamely at the goalie.

The next lot of substitutions saw Callum, Max, George and Morgan returning to the fray as TB, Neil, Braden and Joe came off. TC was another to be poleaxed, this time in the box, resulting in a free kick taken by George. The Panthers pressed forward and had to be reminded to stay in position (again) at high volume from the side lines. Adam dribbled up field with the ball once again and had a shot on goal, which went directly to the keeper, a bit unfortunate when other players were in potentially better positions. The Meds retaliated with a shot on the Panthers’ goal which went high and wide and ended up in the hedge behind. After the goal kick, more substitutions were made with Teddy coming off injured following another hand in the face, being replaced by Sam. It wasn’t long after that there was another mix up in defence but the Meds shot wide, the Panthers getting lucky once again. Callum was heading towards goal, the ball in front of him, supported by Jamie when the Meds keeper came out and was able to close the gap between him and the ball faster than Callum could get to it. Such a shame as Callum had worked hard to get the opportunity. TC, then received a second ‘present’ from the Meds with a hand in the face, followed swiftly by Jamie being flattened again as the Meds tried to keep the Panthers at bay. The resulting free kick from George allowed Morgan to have a shot that was parried by the goalie, his fumbled catch being pounced on by TJ, who couldn’t get it into the net. George picked up the goal kick and with a great solo effort drove forwards towards goal, past the two Meds’ defenders in his way and firing his shot from a very narrow angle which sadly rebounded off the post, the box became a flurry of activity as the Meds tried to clear, but Callum managed to get in a foot and flick the ball over the line for the equaliser, 3-3! The exuberance of the Panthers spectators was short lived , as the Meds immediately pulled ahead with another goal, catching the Panthers out, with poor, half hearted defending leaving Harry exposed – a cheap goal to give away that could easily have been avoided.

The Panthers were aware time was running out and twice Jamie was in on goal attempting to have a shot, the first time he found himself on the floor of the box, the second the Meds managed to get the ball away. More fouls and a whack in the ribs for George meant that the last part of the game was very testing for the Panthers, however the last free kick of the match didn’t produce a goal as the Meds countered, and having been thwarted by some good defending by Charlie and Max headed to the corner flag to hold the ball. Max won the goal kick but time had run out and the Panthers had to settle for their first defeat - a 3-4 loss.

On the whole this was a reasonably good performance. The boys showed courage, resilience, great team spirit and a willingness to fight against much bigger and physically stronger opponents, who weren’t averse to maximising their “physical dominance”. Rest assured there are much “tougher” teams that the boys will come up against as they continue to play. However the way we respond to teams that play this way is to let our “Football do the talking!” We need to be physically strong but fair and not stoop to similar tactics.

We fought back well after going 3-0 down, with Jamie, Callum and Braden all taking their chances well, and at times we showed that we can play sublime attacking football when we pass and move, getting the ball wide and attack with pace, and play balls into an appropriate space for our attacking players to run onto. Firstly, however, we get caught far too often, dribbling ourselves into a dead end. Today a number of the boys were caught out in this situation.  However the lads like and value dribbling more than passing, even though it is often the slick passing moves that are characteristic of some of our less flamboyant players that often lead to goals. However both Shorty and Joe have curbed similar tendencies and today deservedly got the gold and silver awards, but not just because of this. Both Joe and Shorty carried out what I had asked of them. This was particularly important in Shorty’s case, as he played willingly in a less preferred role of wing back and when we could not defend effectively enough as originally set up, playing deeper as traditional full back. Even from there, he showed how dangerous he can be, before he returned and carried out my instructions perfectly when he came on in central midfield later in the game and showed how dangerous he can be from there too. Joe showed his growing ability to play both defensively and provide a potent force moving forward, distributing the ball effectively, either from deep, providing early balls or crossing from the by-line.

Central midfield once again didn’t show enough discipline in ensuring the defence was protected, by pushing too far forward too early in the game, and then being slow to track back when the ball is lost.  This improved as the game progressed as Neil and Morgan worked hard to help out the defence and tried not to get caught too far forward. Nevertheless the main improvement came from being shouted at by Stuart and me, rather than real awareness of how to play the role more effectively. Something we need to continue to work on in training. Don’t get me wrong - everyone worked hard - but we just we need to work on our roles more.  

TC once again played the role in central defence extremely well and continued to show an excellent example of team play for his team mates. Max and Charlie both played effectively too timing challenges well and neutralising most of the threats on their side of the pitch. Teddy had a real challenge on his hands dealing with a very physically strong and big striker and on the whole dealt with him well. George also performed well playing for the first extended period in the right back role but showed his real strength in a more attacking role on the wing. TB had very little time to settle but once he did, made some decisive challenges and I look forward to him playing a much fuller role next week. However it was indecisiveness and suicidal passes accompanied by what seemed like a little tentativeness in the challenge at times that were the teams undoing.

TJ and Jamie showed they were up for the fight and used their creativity well in the last 40 minutes of the game. TJ deserved to get a goal but unfortunately didn’t, as he passed well, supported the attacking play well got in some important challenges. That said he still needs to watch his tendency to drift forward too far and leave the defence exposed when he is unable to get back to cover. Jamie took his goal coolly showing what a deadly finisher he can be, however he was often in dangerous positions and in space, but rarely sought by his teammates and might be wondering if he is invisible to some, despite shouting loudly for the ball! That said he needs to continue to work harder on getting goal side of opponents when the team loses the ball. Braden continued developing his ability to create goal-scoring opportunities as well as finish, those made by others, with aplomb, scoring another excellent goal today. However he also needs to work harder getting goal side when the team lose possession. Adam showed how well he can hold up the ball, how he can create goal scoring opportunities with skill that can beat defenders at times with ease, while at the same time he needs to watch the line more carefully and not get carried away with dribbling around the opposition.

Last but not least, the team must thank Harry for his willingness to do a job that all others bar Nathan treat with differing degrees of trepidation and fear! Despite his stature Harry performed admirably once again in goals, the size of which concern much taller lads. His willingness to dive fearlessly at the feet of attackers, come off his line quickly and to clear the ball effectively, showed how lucky we are to have him as a reserve goalie.

GBK Man of the Match: Joe

Dream Team results: Gold - Joe for another superb display of attacking and defensive wing play with great understanding of when to dribble, sprint, pass, do a trick and play both high and low through balls. Silver- Shorty for carrying out everything asked of him by the manager in terms of position and team play, carried out with gritty determination as well as playing some superb ball over the top and into the runs of other players. Bronze - Adam for some creative hold up play and influencing the game so that the team could get back into it.

Crunchie Moments: Shorty for his wing back play up the wing, Braden for his great goal (Helen apologises for the misunderstanding Braden - she got mixed up as to who had scored – but she knew it was good!)

Wispa Moment: Dirtiest front of shirt award went to George – a consequence of all those superb throw-ins no doubt!

Special Manager’s Award For Taking One for the Team: Harry for agreeing to be first reserve keeper on a permanent basis.