U18s White Vs Carlton Town White Under 8

The second of two back to back home matches saw us welcome Carlton Town White to Bispham Drive, with the kick off time back to 10:30. This week the emphasis was on corners, both defending & attacking and crossing, after we practiced these aspects of the game in our midweek training session and also used crossing in our pre match warm up.  We were down to seven Tornados this week due to illness & holidays, but this didn’t disrupt our build up.

The team lined up with Nathan in goal, Alex in defence, Eddie & Mikey in midfield, Gazza as the lone striker.

The team were on the front foot right from kick off & in a matter of minutes we scored with some persistent work from Gazza, forcing his way through on goal. Carlton soon equalised from a break from midfield, Nathan was left exposed as we lost possession in the centre of the park, leaving the opposition a clear path to goal. We soon retook the lead with a trademark long goal kick from Nathan, clearing the midfield & the Carlton defender. The ball fell into Gazzas path, with only the keeper to beat, he finished well. Eddie soon got in on the goal scoring act to put us into a good position to end the first ¼ (sorry Eddie’s goal lack description as I was in conversation with the subs at this point)

For the second ¼ Eddie dropped into defence, Coby came on for Alex & Dan went up front.

Carlton pulled a goal back with some good play, but it wasn’t long before Dan scored as Nathan whipped in a corner, Dan battled away with a couple of Carlton defenders & got his reward.

Carlton scored again, but we wasn’t going to be pegged back as Mikey took a corner and although the it failed to make it passed the first defender, he followed up the rebound & finished from a tight angle.

This was turning into a real humdinger of a match, so half time was a welcome break and the players had a deserved drink.

The thirdrd ¼ saw Mikey take the keepers gloves, Nathan moved into defence, Oliver & Alex went into midfield & Dan carried on as striker.

This section of the game we really took control as Nathan In defence & Mikey in goal gave us a really solid base to play some great football. Alex scored his first league goal after some great passing interplay from Dan & Oliver. Nathan scored in similar fashion to Mikeys goal, as his corner failed to clear the first defender he hit the rebound hard & low into the goal and Dan scored his second after Alex won the ball in midfield, carried it forward and crossed to Dan to beat the keeper.

In the fourth ¼ Carlton scored but we stayed in control of the game & managed to create several more chances without adding to our tally.

It was great to see the team creating bags of chances and converting them into goals. It was also pleasing to see goals being scored from crosses & corners, just like the team had been practicing in training.

The team voted on the Man of the Match today as it was such a difficult choice for either myself or coach Sweetin to make. Gazza got most of the votes for his all round play & a brace. A well deserved choice by his teammates.