U12 Blues almost upset 2nd placed team!

Posted in U12 Blue News, Uncategorized ... February 16th, 2010

A really good battling performance on Saturday from our boys against the team placed 2nd in our league, Goring Robins. After losing 11-0 to them last time round and without our regular keeper and James Hewitt it looked a tall order to get anything from this game, especially with us rooted to the bottom of the league with only one win all season. However, the boys were told to match them for effort and commitment for the whole 60 minutes, and make sure at the end Goring knew they’d been in a game. The boys didn’t disappoint. The first 10 minutes were evenly balanced, with us showing a lot of organisationm from our 4-5-1 formation, and getting some good tackles in, with them having one corner which we cleared well.  However, in the 10th minute Ollie (our stand-in keeper) drop-kicked out but the ball was returned back into our box and a forward nipped in before Ollie, and toe-poked it past him for the opening goal. The boys then responded brilliantly, and had a good 7-8 minutes of possession, playing some nice football, especially with us kicking uphill. In the 18th minute we got a deserved equaliser. Some good play in the middle of the park from Charlie Collinge ended with him releasing a nice pass into the path of James M just inside the box, and he hit a right foot shot across the keeper into the far corner. We then found ourselves under pressure from Goring for the next few minutes, resulting in an overhead kick from a corner which went over the bar. Just before half-time they had a free-kick just outside the area but the shot was straight at Ollie, who held it well. We then cleared 3 more corners before the half-time whistle through excellent defending, especially from Ewan. The boys needed to match their work-rate and commitment for the second half to stand a chance of producing a shock result, and it nearly happened. However, despite excellent defending, good goalkeeping, there is only so much pressure you can soak up! Goring started the second half really well, and forced a corner in the first minute but it was cleared by Luke, who was having a good game at right back. From the 7th minute to the 22nd we had Ollie to thank for keeping us in the game. In the 10th minute a good shot was parried away for a corner by Ollie, with the corner cleared by Jack E. Two minutes later Ollie made another save from a shot from the edge of our box. In the 14th minute they hit a great shot from distance that hit the bar and was then cleared away by Luke from the rebound. However, in the 22nd minute a cross from the right was headed up into the air by Luke and their tallest player then headed the ball over Ollie and into the net for 2-1.  We then had a rare attacking spell and one good break by Jack W was thwarted by a good tackle from their defender. In the 27th minute they scored again. The ball was chipped over our defence and their forward ran onto it and then chipped the advancing Ollie for a good finish. For the last 3 minutes of the half we had our best attacking spell, with Charlie C firing wide and two corners being cleared by them. An entertaining game ended with a 3-1 loss but the boys can be proud of their efforts and the way they played against one of the better teams in the league. Ollie was man of the match for his stand-in (stand-out!) performance in goal, although all the boys played really well. A repeat of this performance for all the remaining games and we could move up the league by a few places.