Match Report - 13th April

No shortage of entertaining and attacking football to keep the neutrals happy and both teams had the lead to provide both sets of supporters with encouragement. In terms of developing and improving the two teams, the main area to work on clearly is how to defend. For the Bs, the problem was not just with the back four. The whole team fell down in basic defensive lapses which included not tracking back, closing down, getting tackles in and poor or non existent marking. These can be worked on in training so rather than getting bogged down in what went wrong we’ll focus instead on the many positives.

The main positive is that they scored five goals against a team who are a year older and in a higher division. The Bs used the friendly as an opportunity to give Andrew Dixon his first match having trained with the squad for the past few weeks. He played both full back positions. Luis also had a new role, partnering Sid up front. Luis from full back is the second highest scorer and he enjoyed the forward role grabbing two more goals.

The Bs started superbly taking the lead in the fourth minute. Andrew sent the ball over the defence which Sid latched onto. he steadied himself and hit a left foot shot over the keeper only to see it bounce back off the bar. But Luis raced onto it and steered the bouncing ball home. Then on 15 minutes Sid helped himself to a goal running through the centre, holding off the defenders and neatly tucking it past the keeper. Luis and Russell also had opportunities to add to the score and at the other end Stephen produced a great reaction save from a close range shot.

The Bs were unable to hold the lead and conceded two goals from corners when they failed to pick up players running in who scored with ease. The U15Bs were finding that they could get players in unmarked time and time again to threaten and, on 32 minutes, from a ball played behind Andrew they squared the ball to provide a simple tap in from close range.

So at half time it was 2-3 and the Bs had failed to produce any passing play or desire to keep the ball. George came on for Jordan Wright and Ciaran for Daniel. Andrew switched to right back. The aim after the break was to work on maintaining possession and improve their passing.

Early on though in the second half the U15Bs extended their lead with two more goals but a minute later George hit back with a well made and well finished strike. It was set up by Sid who played an inviting diagonal pass to the left corner of the area. George caught the ball as it rose and shot high over the keeper into the corner. Then on 56 minutes Sid struck again to make it 4-5. George and Luis combined to send Sid on a charge on goal. He beat the keeper and touched it goalwards and the back tracking defender couldn’t keep it out.

In the space of two minutes the U15Bs then scored twice from breaks down the right wing followed by a cross which was met without a challenge and slotted home. But straight afterwards Luis struck again and it was 5-7. The ball was played through the centre and Sid and Luis combined to beat the keeper and Luis tucked it home for his tenth of the season. Sid’s two goals took his tally to 25.

Stephen took the man of the match award. Despite seeing seven goals go past him he produced many excellent saves which were vital in keeping the Bs in contention.