Youth Reports 2015-16

7 February 2016

Hadley Rangers Extension U12s 7 Northwood Reds U12s 2

Our first game of 2016 showed that we had not played competitively for a long, long time. With a number of absences again we had to line up with players playing out of their usual positions which again did hinder the sides shape. However even with these changes the boys did start the game well with Lewis Reid scoring a wind assisted goal from near the corner flag after a decent pass from Callum 1-0 the Woods.

The game on the whole was quite well balanced as both teams were evenly matched though it did seem that Hadley were first to any breakdown and the boys were not strong enough in the tackles.

After a spell of pressure from Hadley Rangers a speculative shot was missed judged by Rayyan and the oncoming Handley forward gratefully accepted the tap in 1-1. Hadley went ahead after a fine save by Rayyan was this time touched home by another Hadley player who did look a little offside to me, so immediately I looked up for our linesman when it appeared that he was not there. I then had it pointed out that our referee for the day had decided to go without any linesman/assistances even though they had been offered. This is the first time that I have ever encountered this, and I will be enquiring why this decision was allowed to be made as you would have thought that they would help.

Anyway, back to the game: the boys did still seem second best to everything and I am hoping that once we get a run of games this will improve. The boys were occasionally putting together 2-3 passes and were looking more like the team of old but the final pass or decision was just wrong on a lot of occasions. However it was from one of the few well worked move saw Joshua get forward cut inside to the edge of the penalty area and finish well we were back in it 2-2. John and I were hoping that the boys would see the half out so that we could get them back in for a chat but unfortunately just before half time Hadley went and scored 3-2 Hadley at half-time.

At half time the boys had noticed the lack of lineman and the fact the ref had asked them if we played offside or not and how long each half was so they were feeling a little hard done. We did emphathise with them but told them that they had to concentrate on their game management both individually and collectively. This did seem to fall on deaf ears, though, as five minutes into the second half Hadley scored their fourth. Again the boys rallied and did try to put Hadley under pressure but as in the first half decisions & technique was letting them down as well as coming up against a very well organised Hadley defence. Only two minutes later after another suspiciously offside goal went in and Handley were in front 5-2. You could see that the confidence had gone out of a lot of players and now it was going to be a case of how many Hadley would score The final score was 7-2 which was probably quite flattering for Hadley but they did deserve their win, as too many of the boys had thrown the towel in.

This is one is definitely another one we forget, and however much we want to blame the ref for not having linesmen, we should have battled and made more of the right decisions as we seem to do every week in training every week, we just need to bring that into the matches, and if we do this I am hoping that this is just a blip and as we get the boys back to playing regularly we will find our attitude, performances and form of last season again.

Dave Blincko