Date	Sunday 14th October 2012
Match	Huntingdon Rowdies v Royston Town Youth Colts
Competition	Cambridge & District Colts League Div 13A
Result	Won 2-6
Royston Scorers	Adam 3, Jordan 2, Mick
Man of Match	Adam (Non-stop running and well taken hat-trick)

Team: Rory, George, Joe, Tom T, Kyle, Callum, Jake, Jordan, Adam, Tom F, Mick, Dan.

 

We travelled to Huntingdon for an afternoon kick off on a pleasant and bright but windy and chilly day to play the Rowdies on their massive full size pitch and full size goals not conducive to good football at this age group. We only had eleven players today due to injury and unavailability so we asked Dan to travel with us as an in case of need substitute.

 

On this big pitch we asked the boys to defend as high up the pitch as possible and to get the ball down out of the wind playing their passing game with plenty of power in the passes – keep possession and support the attacks as much as possible. Huntingdon had not had a good start to the season playing some tough teams and were without a point.

 

The boys started a bit slow today which is not like them and our defence of Joe, Kyle, George and Tommy T were called into action early with Kyle making a couple of good tackles and Tommy organising and clearing well. An early chance up the other end saw a deft flick from Mick fall nicely into the path of Jordan who shot just wide. The lively Jordan followed this up with a superb shot that crashed against the bar. The deadlock was broken with Foxy holding the ball up well and laying off a good ground pass for the undeterred Jordan to run onto and send a strong accurate shot high past the Huntingdon keeper. The Rowdies restored parity with a scrappy goal that followed a long ball into the Royston box that wasn’t dealt with and somehow managed to bounce really high over all defenders and evade Rory’s efforts to keep it from crossing the line.

 

The boys regrouped and got back to playing their passing football against a strong and swirling wind. The lead was retaken as Mick took the ball on confidently and rounded the keeper to slot home and Jordan made it 1-3 with a long looping shot that dipped perfectly under the bar. The quality of the Royston football improved greatly and tremendous work from the midfield pairing of Callum and Jake assisted by Foxy dropping deeper let the speed merchants of Jordan, Adam and Mick push on and created good moves and crosses into the danger area. Half time 1-3.

 

With only eleven players this big pitch was looking massive – but all seemed well. The defence were dealing well with most of the Huntingdon long punts with George and Joe keeping their players under wraps and Tommy and Kyle watching carefully for the long through balls. Rory was coming out quickly and picking up most over-hit hopeful, more than accurate passes. Rory had switched to putting his own kicks wide and this relieved a bit of the wind against pressure.

 

Second half with the wind, we asked for continued high tempo work-rate and to continue playing the ground based football. Callum and Jake were superb in this half and together they bossed the middle third of the pitch. Some relentless pressure from Jordan led to Adam arriving in the box to lift the ball over the keeper’s close quarter lunge and into the net to get his first league goal of the season. Huntingdon got one back latching onto a long ball and their striker finished well 2-4. Midway through the half Adam got his second by turning his man well and hitting a firm controlled shot home. Mick was working hard with not all his efforts happening for him today but he was linking well with Adam and Jordan and he pounced on a loose ball and put a lob just wide. Jordan had a shot well saved by the Rowdies’ keeper and Adam completed the scoring and his own hat-trick by running onto a low ground pass and striking a sweet shot home.

 

Whilst this was a hard and sometimes scrappy match we couldn’t have been more pleased with our eleven warriors. Missing three influential players the boys showed our strength in depth as a squad and more importantly their own desire to play football in the right way. This was a really good effort and performance – but I know we have at least another three gears!!

 

P4 W3 L1 F20 A4