Our First 3 points in the League!

A hard fought battle against Poole Town Wessex in our first home fixture of the season, gave us our first 3 points and lifted us off the bottom of the table.

After a torrid week of injuries, sickness and player unavailability, we did manage to field a squad of 10 for this, our first home fixture at Kings Park.

We have a good record against Poole Town Wessex, having beaten them in the last 3 fixtures, including home & away last season, but they won the league last year and have a side of very big, strong, talented lads.

A late fitness test for Captain Marco with his broken toe, meant we risked him to start the game - with strict instructions to come off if he felt any pain. Good job he passed the fitness test as he was instrumental in the match.

We were immediately under pressure from the KO as PTW looked like they wanted to start strong, however we managed to keep them out until we found our feet and the pace of the game.

The team soon found that the lessons learnt from previous matches in this tough league were valuable as they showed they were much more prepared for a physical challenge than before.

However, we went 0-1 down from a corner and goal mouth scramble. Pleasingly though, the lads fought back and didn't capitulate as in previous games.  Some stern defending & super saves from Hermione kept PTW out whilst we started to have some attacking play ourselves. Elliott & Aaron, two players who were way 'underweight' in the middlefield battle, started to pull the strings and we began to have some chances. Eventually, Marco picked up the ball deep in his own half & went on one of his , now legendary, mazy solo runs. I kept thinking he would be tackled by one of the huge lads but he skipped past them all and was soon one on one with the keeper. He shot early from just inside the corner of the penalty area & the ball whizzed into the corner. A worldy! The celebrations were memorable. 1-1 at half time.

Second half, PTW came out looking a bit shell shocked and we had a tremendous period of possession & chances around their box. We could have (and should have) had another 2 at least, with Ed hitting the bar & a couple of crosses that evaded defenders & keeper, somehow not slotted home.

Just after this period, Marco had the ball on the right wing after a mass of tackles & put a lofted, frankly speculative, ball into the box. With the assistance of the wind it avoided all attempts to defend it and it plopped over the keepers head to give us a 2-1 lead.

After that is was classic end to end stuff with H making save after save, the midfielders making crunching tackles and powering forward (special mention for Joe & Marcos here) and Jack running the PTW defenders ragged with his energy.

Eventually, we put away another chance with a shot spilled by their keeper & Jack claiming a true strikers finish. 3-1.

PTW then put us under real pressure and eventually scraped one back with about 3 minutes to go. Nail biting time! 2-3  We hung on til the end to claim a confidence boosting, well deserved win. Great team spirit and togetherness.  I was really proud of all the players & each and every one of them contributed to the performance, which is something I am working towards in every fixture. Also, I could really see the things we have been working on in training starting to emerge, which means that the players are listening, understanding and actioning the coaches ideas. One of our team goals for the season.

Greenfields YFC U11 3 - Poole Town Wessex U11 2

Match info Sunday 19th Oct

Match info 

U11 v Poole Town Wessex (home) - 10am kings park, cemetery side. Warm up at 0930

Home Kit

A home game at last!

New location – see map attached

The are no goals supplied by the council for our pitch so we have to put them up at every home game.

Those of you who kindly volunteered to help set the goals up – please meet me there at 0900, thanks.

Victory in the Cup

We managed a win at last after a shaky start to the season with a 3-1 away win v Mudeford Swans.

A classic up tie against Swans, resulted in a 3-1 victory for the U11 with Jack grabbing his first hat trick for the club.

A lovely big pitch really suited our game and the boys played some really lovely passing football. It took while to break through & Callum went close with a dipping long range effort, but we went 1-0 up with a screamer from Jack approx 15 mins in.  We were fairly dominant after that, only having to deal with a few break away through balls, which Callum & Captain for the day, Zack dealt with superbly.

Just before half time though, Swans did manage to evade our offside trap and slot one home.  However, a great attitude from our boys saw them go straight down the other end with a stinging shot from Aaron which was saved by the keeper but Jack finished from close range in true striker style. 2-1 to us at half time.

Our team talk dealt with trying to get simple through balls to Jack to run on to & not getting carried away with ourselves cos we were winning for a change!  I challenged Elliott in particular to get a ball through for Jack to run onto.  Within 20 seconds we had scored our third! Elliott got on the ball immediately from the kick off & played a beautiful pass & Jack finished his hat trick cleverly with a little chip over the keeper!

It was a similar story for the rest of the half - us dominating possession & attacks & them countering. They hit the post on at least 2 occasions & we had to defend stoutly in the last few minutes as they had a series of corners & sent their keeper up in to the box.

All the lads contributed to the win with  hard work, a bit more fight & actioning the game plan. Everyone had a smile on their face afterwards.  Into the next round....

Cup Fixture 12th October

Our Bournemouth cup 2nd round game v Mudeford – details below

U11 v Mudeford (away) - 1.45pm Somerford Primary School, Draper Road, Christchurch BH23 3AS. No dogs and no smoking

I am now informed that all cup games are 1.45pm KO. Sorry it mucks up the day a bit…

HOME KIT. Warm up 1245