Match report

Match report

Well done to the Woodside U14 Reds that played a cracker of a match, and yet again lady luck didn’t sit on our side. This being said, everyone put in 110% and it showed on the pitch with us controlling the majority of the game. It is great to see a settled defensive line, and Ruby, Banjo, Cooper and Flynn finally had a game where there were periods that they just watched the game. When it did reach the back line, they remained well spaced and covered the centre, clearing the ball decisively on many occasions. Their strongest forward had no room to play, meaning we did not have to commit a player to marking him out. It was great to see Flynn and Sam both moving creatively throughout the field, both being in the right places at the right times.

The real strength in this match came from the midfielders that committed to getting the ball and feeding it forward. Stirling had next to no time to line up passes or shots, which really made their lives difficult. All midfields need to be commended, with Cohenn, Riley V, George, Lysiane, Bob and Sam all getting turns at pressuring the ball. Player of the match went to Riley V who suddenly found some fire and not only just took the ball off Stirling but even put in a spectacular flying karate kick! By being so strong in the midfield Stirling were lost a lot of the time.

Riley T graciously volunteered to keep the whole game and had many strong saves, and whenever he kicked it out it moved the ball forward to our attackers. Well done! Finally Manny and Ryan kept the pressure on it attack, with Manny always moving and thinking creatively with beautiful ball placement skills, and Ryan’s speed and turns with the ball up front being unstoppable by any of their defenders. His dribbling through 3 defenders all bunched around him showed his strength and determination.

We’ll do more work on passing and kicking accuracy, along with better spacing as at times we were bunching up – but not very often! We are looking stronger each week and will surprise a few teams over the next weeks.