Summary:
Under ten boys fourth out of six.
Under twelve boys second out of eight
Thanks to the following managers…
U10 boys Crossy and Seb Sanders
U12 boys Pat Goss and Ray Hansell.
Detailed Reports:
Boys Under 10s
Lost 2-0 v Magpies A
Lost -4-0 v Pelicans
Drew 0-0 v City B
Drew 0-0 v City A
Won – 4-0 v Magpies B – Joe *2, James & Alex Lowry
The first two games were against the teams who eventually finished 1st & 2nd. A new U10’s team took a couple of games to get organised & into their best positions.
Game 1 & 2 the defence couldn’t clear the ball so always under pressure – midfield very congested.
Game 3 onwards – James moved back to defence & alongside Blue we didn’t really look like conceding. Alex Lowry came back into midfield – played v well – a little terrier!
Game 3 we had 2 good chances & could have won.
Game 4 no real chances but equally our defence was solid.
Game 5 – one way traffic…Angus didn’t touch the ball in goal….& Joe, Gus & Alex picked up everything coming out of their defence – a mirror of the first two games.
Alex Lowry player of the tournament .
Team:
Angus Reid Edwards (GK)
James Cross (captain)
Alexander Lowry
Blue Hempsall
Leo Sargent
Joe Beadman
Gus Sanders
Ben Hatwell
Alex Wolfe
Boys Under 12s
The first tournament of the season was the Magpies event and the squad of nine all turned up on time for a frostfree early start ready for the 9:30 pushback. There were eight teams, so a bit larger than last season’s tournaments, with both Magpies and Norwich fielding two teams.
In the first game against Dereham, Dragons were a bit disorganised to start off, with some poor marking allowing Dereham to take control of the game, but some solid defensive play by James and Huck supported by some fine clearances from Ben prevented Dereham from scoring. We had a few good breaks, and with Raunaq making a good run down the centre passed to Pedro near the back of the D, and he cleanly swept the ball into the goal; and it stayed at 1-0 for the rest of the match.
Norwich A were a strong side and Dragons who still not settled were struggling from the outset, and we found ourselves one down after less than a minute. Norwich continued to dominate throughout the match and if it hadn’t been for Ben making some impressive saves the final 0-5 score would have been considerably worse.
We were feeling more comfortable prior to the start of the Watton game, who were fielding quite a young team, and we were in their half for much of the match, with Louis making some good runs down the left wing, dribbling into the D to hit one of their feet and hence gaining us a short corner. A good injection to Edward who’s shot was inches outside the near post. A bit later Harry passed a couple of defenders, crossed to Pedro who rolled the ball out past a defender and a clean hit gave us a 1-0 lead. Less than a minute later Raunaq picked up an excellent cross by Huck, dribbled by a defender and pushed the ball into the corner. With the team gaining composure, Raunaq scored another two before the final whistle – making it 4-0 and a hattrick by Raunaq.
We didn’t know what to expect from Magpies B (who were a similar standard to how w were two years ago), and we dominated from the start; capitalising on their inexperience we gained plenty of short corner practice, and Edward hit the backboard to make it 1-0. Lewis then made a good run down the left, into the D, dribbled neatly past a defender and pushed it past the goalkeeper. The next was a brilliant goal by Jonathan, who swept Raunaq’s cross into the goal. A few seconds later Harry did a copy of Lewis’ goal from the opposite side; and before the final whistle, Raunaq, Edward and Jonathan had all scored another one to make it 7-0, with James and Ben getting a bit bored with not a lot to do in defence.
The Pelicans was a close game but goals by Raunaq and Pedro gave us a sufficient lead despite them getting one back before the final whistle.
With only one loss so far, we were feeling more confident and knew the game against Magpies A would be decisive. As expected there was plenty of action for the defence, and James did some great channelling work to obstruct their crosses entering our D. Huck did some great block tackles and clearances out wide. Edward calmly V dragged past one of their attackers and made a great through ball to Harry who took the ball up and crossed to Pedro who made it one nil to Dragons. However, Magpies came back at us straight after the pushback and were in our D within a few seconds and Ben made a terrific diving save to prevent the equaliser. More great saves by Ben, with some firm clearances by James, Edward and Huck, enabled us to get some minor attacking opportunities, but these were short-lived, and another onslaught by Magpies resulted in a one in one for Ben who rushed out to make a great diving save. The ball rebounded to the stick of another attacker, who with Ben down, saw his chance, and struck it just below knee height to the right hand corner, however, Jonathan put his defensive skills into action and made a brilliant stop, and Harry, who had also rushed back, cleared it away to safety. So we were quite pleased when the final whistle went and the match ended with a 1-1 draw.
In the final game against Norwich B, we dominated from the opening pushback, and played some good hockey with close marking, and players finding and moving into spaces to pick up the clearances from James and Huck. Edward made some good runs into their D, and on one of these passed to Pedro, unmarked on the edge of the D to take it in to score with a fine hit into the middle of the goal. Harry then scored another great goal, which was followed by others from Pedro and Raunaq; and thus 4-0.
Final Result: RUNNERS UP – a great performance
Played 7: Won 5; Drew 1; and Lost 1
Goals For 20 Goals Against 7
The team: Harry Williams, James Hansell, Louis Cann, Huckleberry Hempsall, Jonathan Chaney Baxter, Pedro Goss (Captain), Raunaq Singh Rai, Benjamin Nkrumah (GK), and Edward Murphy
By Pat Goss