U13 Cougars bitten by Lymm Vipers - soft goals conceded lead to opening day defeat

11 September 2011

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         The Cougars with a lot of new faces lined up for the first league game of the season against Lymm Rovers Vipers. Honours were even between the two teams last season with a win a piece but the Cougars knew that the Vipers would present a stern test.

The Cougars started with a 3-5-2 formation , Patrick in goal ahead of him were Atakan right, derek left and in the centre captain Jonathan . the central five were Callum wide left Jake wide right and a central 3 of Will Nicol James and Jayden. In attack and making his debut was Ben supported by last weeks hat trick hero Will K. Joey started on the bench.

1st Half

The lack of match practise and playing as a team soon showed as Lymm threatened to overrun the Cougars in the early stages, despite packing the midfield the Cougars were second to every ball and could not get any passing movements going. Patrick was called into early action and the defence seemed in for a long afternoon. The early Lymm pressure did not lead to any goals though despite a shot that crashed back off of the bar. The cougars seemed to settle down as a result and were trying to use the width of the pitch. In their first game together Will K and Ben were building up an understanding and the Cougars took the lead when Will K played in Ben superbly. Ben through on goal kept his composure and slipped the ball under the advancing keeper to open the scoring. A few minutes later the roles were reversed and Ben put Will through on goal, Will clipped the ball over the keeper but a covering defender cleared the ball off of the line.

The cougars ahead and beginning to play well then relaxed and let Lymm back into the game , they went ahead with two strikes from outside the area that gave Patrick no chance each time there was no challenge and the attacker had time to set up a shot. shortly before half time the Cougars gifted Lymm with a third goal when a throw in across our own box was intercepted by a Lymm attacker who went on to slide the ball under the advancing Patrick. The Cougars had certainly contributed to their own downfall and were unable to make any inroads on the Vipers lead despite some dangerous long throws from Jonathan the Lymm defence held firm.

2nd Half

After a half time rollicking the Cougars started the second half the brighter James was showing some good touches on the ball Derek and Joey were making some strong challenges and Atakan now in central midfield was geginning to win the ball and distribute it well to the flanks where Jayden and Jake could take on defenders. Moved to the back Will N looked solid and made some good blocks and clearences and Jonathan urged the team forward. Despite the Cougars pressure though the Vipers went further behind with two goals in quick succession. Firstly an attacker headed home unmarked from a corner then the Cougars were undone by a long ball through the middle with a Lymm attacker outpacing the defence and finishing well despite a despairing dive from Patrick.

at 5-1 down the Cougars began to play a bit and Ben who held the ball up well in attack controlled a long clearence and beat two defenders before playing atakan in. He finished calmly making the score 5-2 . The cougars encouraged by this had their best spell of the game and the were unlucky not to reduce the defecit further. Joey hit the bar with a long range effort, Will K had an attempt well saved as did Jake after being put through by another superb ball from Ben. James was causing the Lymm defence trouble but could not find the decisive pass. Lymm against the run of play then scored another with again an attacker being left unmarked from a corner, he easily headed in to make the score 6-2 to the Vipers.

Summary

The Cougars only seemed to play in snatches and 5 of the 6 goals could have been avoided with better marking and more pressure on the ball. The Cougars will definitely improve though as their playing time together increases and new recruits become available to boost the squad numbers. Some players still seem unsure of their best position and the problem of last season where the midfield gets out of position and is overrun persists. There were some good signs though ,Ben looks a good addition in attack and Atakan looked very impressive in a central midfield role. If the boys can show more determination and a desire to compete for the ball results are sure to improve.

Man of The Match - Atakan - a powerful second half showing in midfield

Silver - Ben - a real handful up front.

Bronze- Derek very solid at the back and used the ball well going forward.

Managers Comments

 A very shaky start but things improved slightly as the game went on - particularly in the second half.  At one nil up we should have gone for the jugular but we sat back and seemed to be unsure as to what to do next.

We really have some work to do on fitness and, in particular, tackling.  The tackling aspect was definately missing today. 

Still, a long way to go and I'm sure we will improve.

Source: bill kennedy

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