Overcast and dreary, with occasional bright spells in the second half - U11 Panthers play weathervane when faced by Lightning

2 April 2011

Following last weekend’s implosion at Broadheath, the visit of the league’s bottom club Urmston Town Lightning presented a good opportunity to put previous misdemeanours to one side, collect some welcome points and generally rebuild confidence.

At least, that’s how the game should have played out. Instead, the Panthers misfired their way to a narrow half-time lead and spluttered through the opening minutes of the second half to find themselves locked at 2:2 with 15 minutes to play.

Unfortunately, few of the recent lessons had been learned ‘at the back’, as Wilmslow failed time and again to clear loose balls and often found themselves challenging their own teammates in tackles inside their own box. Any opposition midfielder would have been pleased with the quality of the assist that we provided for Urmston’s second equaliser – passing to their attacker to put him in space and clear on goal from a no-pressure position in the middle of the field. Defensively, this was a performance that any self-respecting U9 side would have been disappointed with.

Urmston - encouraged by opportunities that they will be unaccustomed to receiving - were game opponents and took their chances well. With the scores level at 2:2 they could easily have taken the lead into the last quarter, but saw the ball roll inches wide when one-on-one with the ‘keeper.

The Panthers’ midfield and attack provided little solace. Failing to use the available space, they let themselves get crowded out of promising positions and snatched at passes for most of the game. Fortunately, some degree of normal service was resumed in the last fifteen minutes, as Wilmslow scored four goals from twice as many chances.

Match statistics show hat-tricks for Josh Wheeler and for Matias, and a comfortable four-goal winning margin. This doesn’t tell the story of the game and shouldn’t disguise the fact that this was, by some distance, the worst performance we have ever seen from this team.

Any further commentary would descend into a rant, so best to leave it to the boys and see how they respond when they travel to Lymm Rovers on Wednesday evening. There is at least some cause for optimism . . . . they cannot possibly be this poor again.

Source: A Wheeler

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