Cup Defeat……. but signs of promise??

Posted in U12 Blue News ... November 24th, 2009

We played Westwood who are in Division 1 on Saturday in the league cup, and lost 6-3. However, this was a much improved performance from the boys, and if they play like they did in the second half we should get some positive league results for the rest of the season. The story of the game was….the first 5 minutes produced some good midfield play from both sides, with Westwood showing their superior passing and movement skills. This brought them 2 corners in quick succession, which we dealt with well considering the quality of the corners..their number 10 took a better corner than most professionals!! The first shot on our goal came after 9 minutes but was well wide. Two minutes later and they broke clear in our box but shot over the bar. The danger signs were there for us, and a minute later their forward outpaced Ollie in the box, and he clipped his heels for a penalty.  The taker sent JC the wrong way and made it 1-0. Three minutes later and a great piece of skill from their forward made it 2-0. Westwood were now totally outplaying us and a ball over the top after 20 minutes and a good side-foot finish made it 3-0. Our only chance of the half came after 24 mins from some good pressure on their keeper by Liam, the ball broke to Luke, but his shot went wide. Westwood then attacked and after 2 more corners they made it 4-0 with a shot from inside the box that gave JC no chance. Half-time came and whilst we had battled hard, we were being beaten by a good footballing side.  The second half started ominously with a shot that took an unlucky deflection off our debutant Ewan and wrong-footed JC to make it 5-0. A minute later and it was 6-0, with their no 10 hitting a high looping shot from 25 yards that sailed over JC’s head. 4 minutes into the second half and already 6-0 down, how could we respond??? Well, the boys then decided to play some football, win their personal battles and fight to the end!. After 8 minutes James H went on a good run that resulted in our first corner. A minute later and a good attack ended with Jack W crossing for James H to head in the corner and make it 6-1. For the next 10 minutes we had a lot of possession but good defending kept us out. When they had the ball we were also defending well, with Ewan having a great first game for us at centre back. In the 26th minute a long ball from our back line was going to their keeper, but JW pressed the keeper and it broke loose to him and he hit a superb right foot shot over the keeper and into the net. 6-2. 2 minutes later and we broke down the left with good interplay from James M and James H, resulted in a cross from JM, which Charlie C toe-poked in for 6-3. We continued to press for last 2 minutes but could not get any more. A superb second half display which we won 3-2 should give the boys the confidence to now start winning some league games. The whole team played well, with stand-out performances from James H up front, and Ewan at the back. Ewan was given Man of the Match. We look forward to next week’s league game and hope we can start where we left off this week??