A great victory for the team, doing the double over PTW in the process. In fact, with our win in the tournament final last Summer, that makes 3 in a row over them.
PTW are a very decent side & will go close to winning the league, so we had to set up well against them on a sunny Tuesday afternoon.
I took the view that as they played the ball across the pitch very well & were very comfortable on the ball, there was no point in chasing around after them. We devised a plan to let them have the ball in non dangerous parts of the pitch in order to conserve our energy and give us time to set up well defensively. This is quite a complicated tactic for lads of this age to grasp, but grasp it they did & they carried it out very well.
The first half was very cagey and there wasn't much to talk about of note, although Ed did fire off a couple of quick shots which weren't too far away.
At half time, I congratulated the team on there defensive work & challenged them to keep the same strength, whilst being a bit braver going forward to see if we could nick a goal. Again, great work all round held PTW at bay and we started to pile on pressure. A series of corners led to a shot from Oliver which was handled in the box - penalty! Up stepped regular kick taker Elliott and after a deep breath & a puff of his cheeks, he fired the ball straight down the middle with the keeper diving to his right. 1- 0 !
PTW didn't look like they had an answer to our tactics and never really bothered us until a deflected clearance fell to one of their players in the box who stuck out a foot and the ball went agonisingly towards goal. I feared the worst, but Hermione somehow got something on it, Gordon Banks esq, and it went for a corner! Great work H!
We gave them more problems with some counter attacks and at one point Joe almost broke the goal. He sped down the left and unleashed a ferocious shot from almost the half way line. The ball was a blur as it cannoned goalward. It was dipping just enough, but clattered the crossbar/post with such force that the whole goal leapt in the air! it would have been some goal. Unlucky Joe!
After a few injuries to attend to, the ref blew for for full time to give us a great win. Well done to all the team who showed all the things they have been learning recently.
It was a good lesson and experience for the team to play defensively and on the counter attack. a different style and not one I would adopt in most games, but some opposition deserve respect and special attention. if the players keep up this level of play and learning and start to add more attacking prowess, they will be a force to reckon with next season.
It was our last outing with the full squad as some lads are off on Easter holidays. We have 4 more games to go and will do our best to get similar results without them.
