Under 14s Reports Archive (November)

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Under 14s v. BRIGHTON & HOVE ALBION (Result 0-21) League - 21/11/04

 

I guess there are few teams that look forward to an away fixture against Brighton, especially if your are fielding a squad of 10, and without a goalkeeper and striker. We arrived to find heavy drizzle and a sloping pitch, which the Brighton girls exploited well in the first half, having won the toss. Katie B had bravely agreed to deputise in goal, and I decided to field a back four that, in theory, should be both solid and reasonably fast. This compromised our midfield strength a little and, with Amy P as our lone striker up front, we realised that this match would be about soaking up pressure rather than playing attacking football. It didn't take long for Brighton to start showing their superior speed and fitness. On 3 minutes a tidy header from a right wing break saw them grab the early lead.

Another goal followed just a minute later but we then managed to hold them back for 5 minutes before an outstretched foot on the turn from a difficult angle saw a well deserved third goal for the Albion girls. Again, it took then just a minute to add another, but Katie was not making it easy for them, pulling off two fine saves in the 12th and 13th minutes. Using their greater numbers, and realising we could not respond quickly with the slope against us, Brighton flooded the box with players, (far too many for us to mark), reaping the benefit with another 3 goals in quick succession. The middle one of these was a little unlucky as, once again Katie saved well, but they forced the rebound into the net. Working uphill, we had seen little in the way of chances until a free kick in the 18th minute gave Rachel a chance to get the ball somewhere near the edge of the box. Amy P ran on to Rachel's well placed ball but, unfortunately for us, her shot missed by an inch. We were starting to put on a little more pressure but conceded 2 more on the break. From then on it was a damage limitation exercise until the half time whistle as Brighton were able to use their full allocation of substitutes and we were starting to tire. Two more noteworthy incidents from the Albion before the break were a great header from a right wing cross which was directed across our oncoming keeper, and a fine shot with power from an extremely narrow angle which would have tested any keeper. Our own moment of note was another fine save by Katie on

25 minutes from an Albion free kick. Our girls were obviously glad to hear the referee blow for half time and, despite a valiant battle, came in 13-0 down.

 

The second half saw much of the same, with Brighton outnumbering us in the middle of the field. Using the slope to our advantage gave us the chance to play the ball around a bit more and push up at times. Good use of the offside trap earned us a few kicks from around the half way line and, in this respect, our defence seemed more organised than the opposition's. What let us down was our lack of speed, and having no fresh legs to bring on.

Brighton added another four goals in the next 14 minutes before being thwarted in the 19th minute of the second half by yet another great save from our Katie. She bravely faced an advancing run to narrow the angle and took a powerful shot full on in the stomach, hardly flinching as she did so. More sporadic pressure from us saw Amy's shot from the left tipped inches over the bar, and Rachel went close as well. The Albion came back at us and slotted home a few more to end the game 21-0. With a scoreline like that you would think I'd be displeased but, considering our lesser numbers, I thought we tried very hard and were unlucky not to come away with at least one consolation goal. Not one of our players shirked their responsibilities. Every one of our girls tried her best under difficult conditions, and the work rate was pleasing. Their is no doubt that Brighton are a very skilful and athletic team. We do seem to struggle against the faster teams when we play on sloping pitches. Our ideal style of play involves quick short passes and gradual build ups. This is difficult to achieve on a wet muddy pitch, especially when you are a player down, as we had little opportunity to make runs off the ball without being marked out of the game. Even Rachel struggled to distribute effectively from the centre of the field today. Although she won plenty of balls, there were few passing options to take forward the attack. We were forced to play kick and chase, a game in which we would always come off second best in today's conditions.

 

Today I am not awarding a 'Player of the Match' award, instead giving credit to the whole team for never giving up, and for sheer hard work.

Special mentions must go to Katie (in goal), for keeping her spirit up, and giving us some fine saves to liven up the match. Also to Poppy, Rachel, Amy and Steph for their 'never say die' attitude. Having singled out a few names, I must add that every other girl played almost as well. The match was hard but fair, and both teams played in a very sporting fashion. Let us hope we can learn something to take forward to the Cup fixture against Brighton in a couple of weeks.

Under 14s v. ARENA ACES (Result 1-4) League - 13/11/04

 

This most certainly was, to use the well-worn football cliche, a game of two halves. We had taken a while to get started in some of our recent matches, but this was something else. Our first half display was poor from almost all perspectives. We seemed half asleep and not at all in the game as we watched players sail past us, failed to challenge for 50-50 balls, and saw many of our passes miss their target. On top of this, we were not moving for each other or communicating much either. Arena punished our lax start after just 3 minutes when a shot at goal was saved but then spilled by our keeper. Two of our defenders stood and watched as the ball rolled, as if in slow motion, away from Amy and towards the oncoming Arena forward.

Just getting between the striker and the ball would probably have been enough but, no one moved and we were very quickly 1-0 down. There were spells in the first half when we could have made amends but they were few and far between. One exception followed a good cross from Rachel, out near the right hand corner, which Amy P volleyed and was unlucky not to score.

We had numerous chances to prevent Arena'a second goal as a run from a very deep position was left unchallenged. Although their player had pace, she took the ball past 3 of our girls, with little or no effort by us to challenge the run. In the end she was through on goal and whilst, on a good day her shot might have been saved by our keeper, today our luck was down; 0-2. That was on 20 minutes and, less than a minute later, we saw an almost identical effort netted to put Arena 0-3 up. I began to think our worries were over when the shock of this seemed to galvanise some of our players in to action, and Amy pulled off a great save for us in the 23rd minute.

Wrong! On 26 minutes, Arena's superior speed on the break created another opportunity, which they put away to go in 0-4 ahead at the break. Arena's game had been about neat, controlled passing, and quick incisive runs at goal. Our game had been downright sloppy.

 

The second half, however, was a different story. We decided at half time that we needed to get the ball out to the wings, be more accurate in our passing, and challenge to win the ball from kicks and 50-50 situations. I think we addressed these problems well, and we came out looking like a completely different team. Five minutes into the second period, Steph chipped the ball in to split the Arena defence and it was touched on to Poppy who was very unlucky not to score. It was pleasing to see us moving up as a team and starting to put Arena under pressure. Getting the ball out to Poppy or Susan on the right wing, and Ellie on the left wing, certainly helped our game and Arena were lucky to survive several goalmouth scrambles resulting from the crosses these players put in to the box. When we pressed up from the centre, Rachel managed to split the defence on several occasions with well timed balls. The centre backs also played their part in pushing up to support the attack. Shabana almost scored in fact when one her famed half-volleyed clearances almost caught the Arena keeper but, in the end Ruth just managed a save to temporarily deny us that elusive consolation goal. Not for long though! With 10 minutes to go of the second half, Amy P scrambled the ball over the line to make it 1-4. We were unlucky not to make the scoreline a little more even as it does not reflect the effort we put in after half time. It does, however, teach us a valuable lesson. We can easily lose a game in the first half, no matter how hard we try later in the game. The standard of teams in this league is, on the whole, very evenly matched. It is by doing lots of little things well that we can get the edge and win games. We will not see a better example of this than in our game today.

 

This week's 'Player of The Match' award must, without a doubt, go to Ellie.

I have not seen her play quite as well as this for ages. At times this has been very frustrating, as I knew that she always had it in her to perform at this level. Her ability to get the ball down the wing, check back, and cross really opened up the game for us. It was good to see her taking players on and beating them with adept feints, turns, and drag backs. In the end she was causing so many problems that Arena put 2 markers on her but she still did well. More importantly, this left the goal area less congested for our strikers. On another day we might well have capitalised on this more. Well done Ellie. We look forward to seeing more of the 'old you' in future games.

 

I realise that the first half of my report sounds like one big moan. The important thing was that we were able to learn from our mistakes, identify what was going wrong in the first half, and put it right in the second.

This game will have been a very useful exercise if we can take the things we have learned and apply them quickly in future games; preferably from the whistle (the first whistle that is - not the start of the second half)!