Thrapston Town Gold 0 v Thrapston Town Yellow
9
This week's game was our only David vs Goliath
encounter this season, the hotly awaited derby against the
Thrapston Yellows. With some players fighting winter viruses
and our key Defensive General out with tonsilitis, it was
touch and go whether we would have a team to take the field
today. However, one by one they arrived to take their places.
We were under the cosh right away but somehow
survived wave after wave of attacks with Jordan playing
out of position, and Sam making his Gold debut in defence.
All was well until a lack of man-marking allowed the softest
of goals in just over 3 minutes from a set piece. Heads
uncharacteristically went down and a few minutes later
an almost identical goal was conceded. Ethan valiantly
kept us in the game until a driven ball hit him "where it hurts" and he was
forced to retire from the game, gingerly. A few moments later,
one of these rocket shots hit Sam squarely on the side of
his face and he, too had to be replaced. Jack came on in
defence and immediately tried to push the ball forward. All
this changing seemed to shock the team into life and we began
to get a few passes together to feed Thomas and Craig up
front. Lewis gradually moved up field to meet their attacks
and they were kept quiet until the half-time whistle went.
Only 2-0 down was a surprise to some, but not to the Gold
Coaches.
As the second half started it was apparent
that this veteran Yellow team had learned their craft well
over the years and their obvious teamworking ethic saw them
draw away in both style and effectiveness. Although we pushed
their defence a few times in the first few minutes, our makeshift
defence showed how much we missed the dictation of Matt and
we fell apart by showing way too much respect for the Yellows.
Goals 3-6 came through misunderstandings and running the
ball across our own goal! Harry got hit with the ball and
it somehow fell straight to Max who didn't waste the chance
and slotted home unopposed. Lewis was then spotted limping
after an earlier challenge and George came on in his place.
Sadly he was put up against Max and whereas he valiantly
tried to beat the Yellows free-scoring forward, he was pushed
aside and Lucaas was faced with with no less than 5 Yellow
players all vying to score, which they did. The next goal
was caused by all 3 defenders walking away from the attacking
Yellows due to some unknown communication error for the eighth
to finally slip in. Meanwhile, at the other end, Lewis showed
incredible skill to work his way, time and time again, right
up the field and so nearly score. This seemed to bring Craig
back into the game with Thomas and we so nearly scored on
3 or 4 separate attacks. This gave us real hope to battle
for pride until another misdirected pass gave the Yellows
their final goal of the day. An abject lesson in football
but we did so well to keep that score down! Everyone was
talking and calling-everyone tried so hard. Again simple
mistakes caused a few of the goals but the others would not
have been stopped by anyone in this league. In fact, we stopped
some certain goals and we can be sure that we gave them more
of a game than they expected. MOM Lewis-He played from the
start and fast became the heart of the team today. He showed
no respect for the Yellows and showed a side of his game
not seen before. Keep it up!
My personal thanks for all the
usual help and encouragement from all the parents and friends!
This is your team!
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