Thrapston Town Yellow 0 v Thrapston Town Blue 5
The past few weeks have been great. We have started playing teams for a second time and it has given all of us an opportunity to judge the progress that the boys have made as a team. As I’ve said before, we are playing teams, like the Blues, who have been together for some time – we have less than a season. I know that everybody would agree that progress made by the boys has been tremendous. Going into the return match with our friends and neighbours from the Blues we all knew it would be a tough test – but another great chance to assess how good we are becoming.
When we played the Blues last time I played a very defensive formation. Today I asked them to take the game to the Blues and give them something to think. They did this from the first whistle. We were tremendous throughout the first half. Whilst we were put under pressure by the Blues we created many chances ourselves and could easily have taken the lead several times. The boys did everything that was asked of them – strong in the tackle, brave, plenty of energy...if the ball went loose they were there trying to win it. The shooting (which we’ve been working hard on in training) was great...as was the passing. However, despite our pressure the Blues went in 1-0 up - the ball creeping in at the near post following a corner.
It was a shame that we had half time today. Even after the goal the boys retained their momentum and came back at the Blues. We lost some of that in the second half. Although we were still creating chances of our own the Blues put us under more pressure than they had in the first. This added pressure meant that our defence had to work harder – as did the rest of the players to get back and help defend as well as go forward and attack. Eventually, this took its toll today and towards the end we leaked a couple of additional goals. The final score was 5-0 to the Blues.
This was a score that did not reflect the way that boys played.
Regular readers will know that I rarely name players individually. However, after the match (out of interest) I asked 4 people separately after the match for their opinion on the ‘man of the match’...and they all gave a different name. I believe this is testament to two things:
- All of the boys put in a great performance. Well done all of you.
- We are a team. The boys work for each other.
I started this weeks ramble by saying what progress we are making. No hot dogs this week boys. I am confident that you will be tucking in after next week’s match – you should be also.
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