Sunday 1st March
Sherwood FC 2 - 1 Ravenshead Reds.
We have met Ravenshead regularly over the last couple of seasons in league and cup and our matches have always been tight low-scoring affairs with no quarter given or asked. This game was no exception.
Today's game started with a minutes silence as a mark of respect for the sad loss of a Ravenshead U18 player, a victim of the tragic crash on the A614 recently. All four teams and their parents made sure the minutes silence was impeccably observed - well done and thank you to all concerned. This sort of thing certainly puts mere football matches into perspective.
The conditions for football were great, it being perfectly dry and sunny with a nice nip in the air. Noel had his tactics ready and our Captain, Harry W was moved up into midfield to see if we could test the theory (as first expounded on Dad's Army) that they don't like it up ‘em. Thomas was moved to right back alongside our other defensive rock, George and both had good games and gelled together well. It's not often you see a number nine playing right back but it worked for us!
Sim started in goal, with William and Joe supporting their Captain in midfield and Finn again being asked to play the difficult and testing role of lone striker. This worked okay in the first half, but the balance of play was with Ravenshead who had the better chances and more of them. Just.
The only goal of the half came just before the break, a towering header following a free-kick close to the by-line on the left. George blamed himself for giving away the kick but whilst it was a clumsy challenge, the fact is that marking up at set pieces is a team responsibility, and on this occasion we didn't do it. So Ravenshead took a deserved, though slender lead into half-time. The really great thing is that Sherwood battled on. No heads went down, no-one blamed anyone else and we responded as a team. This is just how it should be, and it's what gets results - having said that we couldn't break the Ravenshead defence for the remainder of the first half despite our best efforts.
At half-time the management got their heads together and Tom and Humzah (who made some great touches to justify his place in the squad) came on up front and in midfield respectively. Also, Ivan came on in goal and (despite one heart in the mouth moment) kept a clean sheet. This seemed to tip the balance in our favour - better tactics rather than better players is how we saw it and our rotation policy is important because we need to be up for 11-a-side next season.
The new lease of life paid dividends and within moments we were level. Some quick sharp passing gave Harry W the chance to bundle the ball over the line
with a large group of players all scrambling to get the ball. This one wasn't a contender for goal of the season, but no-one connected with Sherwood will be bothered about that! If anyone was it certainly wasn't Harry W who was grinning from ear-to-ear in a kind of ‘I knew I could do it in midfield / what have I been saying' kind of a way.
It continued as an end-to-end game with both teams having their chances to win it, the balance in this half though was with Sherwood and our determined Captain scored again (a much cleaner finish this time) to give us the lead, and the win.
Well done to both teams for a fine display of competitive football. On another day it could have gone the other way, and who knows, in the return match in a couple of weeks it just might.
One Man of the Match has to be Harry W this week. As I keep saying it could be Harry every week. This was a true Captains performance. He addressed his team before the game, led the three cheers for Ravenshead after the game and led by example on the pitch. Oh, and he scored twice!! He kept his celebrations as muted as he could for the second, but couldn't contain himself and a couple of people in Derby have since e-mailed complaints about the noise!
However, there is another Man of the Match, no mean feat in a great team performance of character, endeavour and skill. Tom's reaction to not making the starting line-up was disappointment rather than dissent and determination rather than resignation. He gave the perfect response with a great second half display of passing (he has great vision), tackling and running. He was also particularly unlucky to hit the bar with a header from one corner.
Well done Tom and Harry W, well done the team for a cheerful, supportive and determined effort and well done to Ravenshead for supplying, as ever, testing and committed opposition.
I think we all really enjoyed the 5-a-side game afterwards on the smallest mini-pitch and this too saw two committed and sporting performances from both teams. I'll confess I lost count of the actual number of goals, but Ravenshead ran out winners on this occasion. Let's hope this is not a sign of what awaits us at their place in a couple of weeks.
