Youth Reports 2016-17
11 December 2016
Northwood Reds Reds Under 13s 3 Hendon United 4
Without first choice goalkeeper Rayyan , George took up the gloves in goal with a back four of Ale, Arun, Lewis Ryan And Declan , the midfield 3 of Felipe, Dan Jago and Daniel Terry Oliver and Lewis Reid playing the wing positions with Ashley up front with the returning Ben on the bench alone as Zaki was not available either.
The game kicked off at 2pm in near perfect conditions for a game of football. With Hendon having come down from the Red division we knew that this would be a hard test for the boys and this became even more difficult when the boys went 1-0 down after only five minutes, to a sloppy goal that we should and could have prevented . It was noticeable today that the shape and the movement of the ball that we did so well against Bushey last week was just not there. The boys were leaving big gaps between the back four and midfield and Hendon were making the most of this. Hendon did have a number of chances that they missed or George did well to save but the boys were really living on the edge and the game could have been out of sight after only 15 minutes. Then in the 18th minute the inevitable did happen and Hendon got their second of the afternoon with a well taken shot that George did not have a chance with. Just before half time we introduced Ben who did have an immediate impact as he slid a great ball into Ashley who went onto score so we came in at 1-2 at halftime.
In the halftime team talk we instructed the boys to get control of the ball and to start moving it quicker as we had in previous games as when we had done this we had got around the well organized Hendon defence. The boys did start the second half better and were showing some of the good football that we know they are capable of. But just as we seemed to be getting back into the game Hendon broke well and scored their third with only 7 minutes of the second half gone 3-1 Hendon. This did seem to kick the boys into action and they then started to play better football but still were not moving the ball quick enough and were getting caught in possession too frequently. Again we tried to change the shape and again we did have some success with what was probably the best goal of the game.
The ball was moved out wide by Ashley to Lewis Reid who broke down the right to the goal line pulled back a great pass for Oliver to score to make it 2-3, game on. The boys were no pressing and again got caught out by Hendon to get back their 2 goal cushion 2-4 Hendon. Again the boys came back into the game with Ashley going on one of his solo runs and again finishing well to make it 3-4. The boys then threw everything at them with Lewis Ryan going up front to leave 3 at the back, but unfortunately we had run out of time and the game ended 3-4 Hendon. All round the performance improved as the game went on and if we had played with the same intensity in the first half that we did in the second we could have got a more positive result.
Well done to all the boys especially Dec who had another very good game at left back.
Line up: George, Ale, Lewis Ryan, Arun, Daniel Terry, Dec, Oliver, Felipe, Dan Jago, Lewis Reid, Ashley, Ben
Dave Blincko
