U13 Cougars hit 7 against Ashton Leopards - Cougars knock spots off of leopards

30 October 2011

After a weeks break and still smarting from the single goal defeat at Sale Pirates the Cougars travelled back down the M60 to take on Ashton on Mersey Leopards who like the Cougars had started the season with 3 wins and 3 defeats. They knew beforehand that they would be in for a tough encounter as they had two bruising matches against the Leopards the previous season. With Ben now departed and Ilan and James not available and Joey encountering traffic problems the Cougars started with the bare 11.

ahead of Patrick in goal were a back line of Jamie, Callum Jonathan and Derek. A midfield 4 of Jayden,Joe Atikan and Will Nicol and a front two of Will.K and Jake. The Cougars elected to play uphill in the first half with the sun in the Ashton goalkeepers eyes.

1st Half

It soon became clear that  Will.K and Jake had the legs of the Ashton defence and good interplay between them led to the first attempts on goal. The tactic which was to prove successful throughout the match was to get the ball beyond the defence and allow our attackers to use their pace. Jonathan supporting from the back had an attempt on goal that the Ashton keeper just turned wide via a post.

Patrick was also soon in the action clearing well from a breakaway. generally though the Cougars had the upper hand in the early stages and Jonathan and Derek looked composed at the centre of the defence. at full backs Callum and Jamie linked play well with the midfield finding Will.N Jayden and Joe with good passing.

Atikan was in the thick of everything and tried to take on the Ashton defence his good run was bought to an end with a trip just inside the area leading to a penalty being awarded to the Cougars.

Now established as penalty taker  Will.K stepped up and calmly slotted the kick home to give the Cougars a deserved lead, The Cougars continued to exert pressure and won a series of corners from one of these they doubled their advantage when an Ashton defender could only deflect Atikan's well taken corner past his own keeper to make the score 2-0 to the Cougars.

Now full of confidence the Cougars continued to press and scored again following a powerful run and shot by Will.K, the keeper managed to get a hand to his shot but the rebound fell kindly for Jake following up who easily scored to make it 3-0 . Will.K then got his second and the Cougar's fourth with a good header from another well delivered Atikan corner.

Just before the break the Cougars got their fifth and Will.K completed his hat trick after a long clearance from Patrick beat the defence , Will sprinted clear and coolly rounded the keeper before slipping the ball into the empty net.

2nd Half

 Joey had now arrived and joined the action in midfield with Atikan taking a well deserved breather. The Cougars started the half sluggishly though and Ashton won control of the midfield. They pulled a goal back just after having another effort ruled out for offside and then scored a second after the defence failed to clear. Ashton were now definitely back in the game and apart from a superb series of saves from Patrick would have reduced the deficit further as the Cougars midfield got caught constantly out of position and regularly offside.

After weathering the storm the Cougars slowly got into stride again and only a good save by the Ashton keeper denied will.K another goal. He was back in on goal a few minutes later though after a good ball from the back by Callum, this time he poked it past the advancing keeper to make the score 6-2 . Joe determined to get involved then set off on a run down the left cutting into the box , the keeper made a good save from his effort but again the ball fell kindly to Jake following up to make the score 7-2 to the Cougars.

Ashton continued to press and did pull another back just before the end and in the dying seconds Patrick pulled off another great save to make sure the final score line of 7-3 reflected the Cougars dominance of the match.

Summary

Missing a few players the Cougars bounced back well and ran out easy winners despite a slight wobble just after half time. There were lots of good individual performances today and the Cougars got the ball forward quickly creating goal scoring opportunities. If they can continue to keep the shape in midfield and deliver set pieces better they will be in for a good season and can once again challenge for promotion.

Patrick was awarded the bronze man of the match award for yet another consistent performance between the posts , Atikan was awarded the silver award for a commanding midfield display . Gold award this week went to Will.K who completed his second 4 goal haul in 3 games and is looking capable of filling the considerable void up front caused by the departures of Emmanuel and Ben.

The Cougars now go into a run of three games against opponents below them in the table and will be looking to join the early season pace setters.

Managers Comments

Some really good individual performances throughout the team today.  There are improvements on many levels as each game comes and goes.  I felt although the midfield were sometimes caught out of position when the leopards were attacking, going forward the midfield supported the attack very well. Subsequently the Leopards couldn't live with us.

With the midfield defensive duties in mind, this is something we need to work on urgently in training.

Apart from the slight blip just after half time, we were dominant throughout.

The highlight for me, although Ben is no longer with the team, we can obviously still score goals and the assists are coming from many different positions.

Well done boys - Lets do it all again on Sunday! 

Source: bill kennedy

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