U18s White Vs Stapleford Villa Black

This was our first game of 2015 & the first match for 4 weeks, due to the Christmas & New Year break. We had a really good midweek training session & it looked like all the team were ready to play after what seems like such a long break.

We faced a very good Stapleford Villa Black team away, so we had to be cautious in our approach. A starting line up of Dan in goal, Eddie at the back, Nathan playing the Nemanja Matic, or for you slightly older readers, the Claude Makelele role, Emin & Gazza played as attacking midfielders.

From the first whistle we started on the front foot as both Emin & Gazza calved out some early chances. Some brilliant passing football created the games first clear cut chance as Eddie played the ball out of defence to Nathan in midfield, he passed to Emin who beat his marker to set Oliver clear of the last defender. As he bore down on goal the recovering defender tackled him from behind sending Gazza crashing to the floor. A ‘stonewall’ penalty, but as the reff was a bit behind the play he seemed a little reluctant to give it. Common sense prevailed and the spot kick was awarded. Gazza dusted himself down, stepped up and buried it, giving the keeper no chance.

Changes were made after 10 minutes with, Alex Mikey, Coby & Michael taking to the field.

Stapleford moved up a gear and started to create a few chances, but we were defending well as a team. Dan was very commanding & brave in goal. A innocuous ball to hand incident in our penalty area followed, and a dubious penalty was awarded, but we had confidence in Dan as he saved the resulting spot kick, pushing the ball wide, out of danger.

At half time the whole team was in a confident mood & Dan was getting packs on the back from his teammates for keeping us in the game.

Dan remained in goal for the second half, with Eddie, Nathan Emin & Gazza returning. Again Emin & Gazza were looking good in midfield & creating some great opportunities going forward, Emin was sending Gazza clear of the last defender on several occasions, but for the Stapleford keeper playing well & a couple of chances going slightly wide, I believe we’d be out of sight.

Stapleford managed to pull a goal back to bring the game all square, so with a few tired legs, changes we’re made again going into the last 10 minutes.

Coby was really trying hard to make things happen up front, but as Stapleford scored a goal to get their noses in front, our heads dropped and unfortunately we conceded a few more goals in the last few minutes. A couple of late tackles were going in from Alex as he was doing his upmost to keep us in the game, but tiredness could be blamed, along with a boggy pitch, which was a real shame as our team performance certainly didn’t deserve for the game to end this way.

We matched a very good Stapleford Villa side for 30 minutes today, with some creative attacking play, made tackles in midfield to break up the opposition play & Eddie was back to his best in defence as the opposition strikers was getting no change out of him at all.

But for an outstanding display in goal & a penalty save, Dan took the Man of the Match trophy today, well done!