Under 9s vs Barnes Eagle Colts – 15.04.18

15^th April 2018

Merton                                                1
Barnes Eagles                                    3

Goal scorer                                         Joe
MOM                                                    Ollie

This week saw the boys, minus Faris, who was still on his holiday play Barnes Eagle Colts at their ground.  The facilities set up and pitch conditions were ideal, considering the rain in the week. Neal took the boys for the warm up concentrating on their passing and moving.  Referee called the boys to the pitch for kick off.  The pitch was defiantly larger than the boys normally play on.  Line this week was Max (GK), Ollie and Harry defence, Lewis, Louis and David midfield with Joe up top.  Archie and Percy subs. Another week of 4 quarters, which I believe takes the momentum out of the game and the boys.  Too many stop starts in my mind.  This showed in the game as in the first two quarters, the boys had the upper hand with Joe getting us one nil up.  This goal came from a great cross by David, which found  Joe, with a cheeky flick of the foot, spinning the ball pass the keeper and in to the goal.  Apparently he meant it?!! As the game went on and changes made each quarter you could see that this had an effect on the game.   We gave away the 3 goals by not clearing the ball out of our half properly.  Max again making some great saves and clearing ball well on the back pass. Their number 5 was a very good player and main threat. He was hard to get pass and very quick.  We did create some good chances but couldn’t finish.  Archie could have got on the score sheet had he kept his shot down.  Lewis hit the post and David and one of their players hit heads during the last quarter, little dazed but ok.  Ollie and Harry were very good as a partnership in defence.  Ollie being very vocal, shouting instructions throughout the game and worked hard, deservingly getting the man of match award this week.   The referee, who liked to blow the whistle on an attacking play, blew for full time.  Final score 3 – 1 to Barnes.

The boys walked off and Neal gave them his honest opinion of the game.  He explained that there were some good parts and some bad.  Considering they had most of the possession and should have come away with a result, told the boys to have a think during the week where they could improve. 

Couple of home games left before season ends; let’s hope we can end on a high before we go into summer break. 

Archie enlightened us about his weekend BBQ and guest with a very interesting job!!!