YEL Sunday U10 Division 2
September 28th, 2008
Ernehale Colts 4 v 5 Sherwood FC
If football is the opera of the people the fat lady sang just in time today. At five-one up with ten minutes left I thought it would be okay to let George out of his defensive cage, but the decision nearly cost us all three points.
Our Assistant Manager came into his own for this fixture. As a Forest supporter the temptation is to think he knows nothing about football, but it was he who suggested the winning formation. William hadn't found the ground in time for kick-off so there was a bit of last minute re-jigging to be done . . but it worked. Playing down the slope gave us all the advantage we needed and saw us 2-0 up at the break courtesy of first Buckly then Tom. Both goals were scored within a minute of each other around the 20 minute mark. This was just reward for our superior passing play and the great performances at the back by both Harry W and George.
I feared the worst after the break defending down the slope but five minutes into the second half saw us 4-0 up with goals from Buckly and William. A rare defensive lapse saw Ernehale claw one back but Buckly put us 5-1 up with 10 minutes left and we looked good value for the scoreline. At this stage we suddenly forgot what a simple game football is - if it moves kick-it and if it doesn't move kick it until it does. Two goals in successive minutes at the end from Ernehale saw George back in defence, and although they added a fourth the final whistle came just in time (for us anyway).
A very sporting game played in exactly the right spirit. Mini soccer is a pleasure when it's conducted like this. An exciting game where no-one got it out of proportion with excellent fair support from both sides and a referee who got it just right.
A much better team performance from us and that's why we did so well. Buckly and Finn had some great interchanges of passes, everyone was prepared to work hard in midfield and support each other and our defensive pairing was (not the one we were going to start with) unbelievably good. Another Captains performance from Harry W, but for an astonishing performance today, particularly in the air, the Man of the Match award goes to George
