Today was a day of changes for the team, with new positions being trialled for the new season. It showed at first as we soon came under pressure from a very enthusiastic Grange team, who, on paper, are a vastly more experienced and technical team. However, the new defensive pairing of Harry and James defended valiantly, and with Sam showing some clever saves, we seemed solid for the first 10 minutes. However, a little naive drawing out of Harry and James let in their super-fast number 18, who powered a simple shot into the corner. Lucaas then came off for a rest as Thomas went into shore up the midfield gaps, and he soon went straight into the fray, delivering a deftly-flicked pass to Matthew, our captain for the day, that was inch perfect, and nearly resulted in an equalizer as Matt's shot screamed mere inches wide, and only with an assist from the really strong winds today. The second goal for Grange came a few minutes later from way outside the penalty box-a screamer helped greatly by the wind that caught Sam and everybody else out as it found the top corner of the net. A half-time score of 2-0 did not dampen spirits.

    Jordan had come off to rest and Lucaas came back on, and as the second half started, our extra pace showed as Joshua stole the ball from our own half, deftly found Thomas on the run, who in turn unselfishly passed it on to Matt, who had found space in midfield, and left him on for goal with one defender to beat. This he did expertly and drove a shot that looked certain to find the corner of the goal, only for the wind to again sweep it half an inch wide. This made Grange try to attack more, but still found us in possession most of the time. As our confidence rose, our whole team moved forward as one, but 10 minutes later we were found out when another 3-man attack drove through our midfield and scuffed a goal past a stretching Sam. This seemed to rattle us and no-one knew what Lucaas and Matt were discussing as we kicked off. However, we soon found out as Matt and Lucaas played the simplest of one-twos and Lucaas launched himself against the entire Grange midfield and defence and let loose a shot which set the Grange goal rocking as it ricocheted in. 

    The Gold spirit restored, and encouraging words from everybody to each other, found us launching wave after wave of attacks. At one point, Thomas, Josh and Matt all lined up to score. However, this exposed our midfield and defence again as Grange threw their 3-man attack at us again and we let in 2 goals in quick succession after leaving Sam helpless on his own. Jordan then came on for Josh in a tactical change. Another Grange attack nearly cost us a penalty when the entire team tried to defend, but this then let us launch an attack from the back as Lucaas again hit 2 more shots that just missed, Matt so nearly claimed one and Harry had three excellent shots, one from distance.

    As the final whistle went, we looked so disappointed to lose against a team that we would have been glad to walk away from earlier in the season. There was no gap in quality here. The scoreline surely flattered Grange, but everyone was a real star today-they did their jobs well and worked and supported each other as a team-well done! We really looked like we enjoyed the game today-the way it should be!

Man of the Match-a really hard decision, but we decided Matt did so well with his incredible work-rate in a strange role-he stood up and was counted today.

 

Thanks to the parents for their great support today, and a special thank you to Simon Thomas for showing us how to set the goal up quickly!