U10's A battle at Cheadle & Gatley - 100% record maintained

5 October 2008

A cold and windy day and Albion knew that they would face stiff opposition. A late appearance by the referee saw David Jackson take control of the situation by whistling to attract the attention of another supporter only to cause the kids to start the game. The situation was brought under control and finally the game was officially started.

Early in the game we exerted pressure with a throw in from Tom giving Alex his first chance of the game which went just wide.

Will was in good form showing skilful control but the Cheadle and Gatley players were certainly strong enough to put in some excellent challenges.

They had definitely come with the intention of giving us a strong contest and Patrick was soon in action producing some demanding saves.

Despite our good play, against opposition like this we need to be on top form and at this stage a lack of communication between the players was causing us to put pressure on ourselves.

The chances were starting slowly to come, a fumble from the Cheadle goalkeeper gave us a chance but he recovered well to scramble the ball clear and a long throw from Tom was well controlled by Will who was unlucky to have his shot saved.

The strength of the opposition meant that defensively it was all hands to the pump leading to the appearance of “Chopper” Calvin who made his presence felt all over the field and it was needed as Cheadle and Gatley were putting us under constant pressure.

The last play of the period saw sustained pressure from Albion with 3 attempts on goal ending in a corner for Albion taken by Alex and headed just over the bar from Tom.

End of the period 0-0

The second period saw Sam coming off to be replaced by Ian and we started well with good passing from Miles leading to attempts on goal from Alex and Will producing good saves from the C+G goalkeeper.

Ian was determined to make his presence felt and was doing well in holding off the constant Cheadle and Gatley pressure.

It was clear from the coaching staff of both teams that this was still anybodies game and the team that stopped making errors would win , calls of “You’re all watching it” from Albion and “Boys can we try and pass the ball “ from Cheadle sums up what each team had to put right to get the upper hand.

Finally a goal came and we were lucky to be the benefactors, a long throw in from Tom was headed in by Alex to give us a 1-0 lead, any thoughts of now being on the ascendancy were quickly dispelled as Patrick made more great saves.

End of period 1-0 Albion. 

Third period.

Will and Miles were off at this stage, Miles needing some time to recover from a heavy knock on the head. Bradon was back into the action and made his mark straight away with a rock solid performance in defence.

The boys were now starting to communicate better and it showed with  better passing and control of the game.

This soon led to Alex’s second of the game after a great pass from Calvin but even at 2-0 up Cheadle and Gatley thought they could get this game back and all the players had to stay focused with excellent tackles from Sam, Bradon and Calvin all helping the cause, and on the occasions when they still got through our defences then Patrick was a having a great game in goals.

The midfield of Calvin and Sam was operating well and all the Albion team seemed to be up for the challenge of winning what was clearly one of our toughest games for a long time.

The end of the game came with everyone in agreement that many of the boys had their best game for a long time and that was in a big part down to the quality of the opposition which made us play our best.

It was agreed that Alex should be man of the match for another consistent all round performance.

End of the Game 2-0 Albion.

Source: A Higginson

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