Date	Sunday 1st May 2011
Match	Bedwell Rangers v Royston Town Youth Colts
Competition	Royston Crow Youth Football League U11 Division 2
Result	Won 1-4
Royston Scorers	Mick, Callum, Lewis Rory
Man of Match	Rory (Good clean sheet in first half then a well taken goal in second)

Team – Rory, Charlie, Brad, Jamie C, Joe, Tom T, Callum, Matt, Tom F, Lewis, Mick, Jack, Keiran.

 

Our last league game saw us travel to Bedwell Rangers Aztec’s ground on a beautiful spring morning. Bedwell are the only team to take points off us this season when they visited us in November and found us unusually poor on the day and deservedly won. We were determined to reverse this result and show Bedwell why we were champions. We were given a friendly welcome and found a good level pitch that was hard under foot but was covered with numerous rogue lines including a running track and a rounders pitch. 

 

We were without Bruce and JP today and had Jack and Keiran coming back from illness and injury but the boys seemed keen and up for it which was great to see. We asked Tommy T to slot in alongside JC at centre back and we knew he would give his all for his team.

 

The game started with the boys settling earlier than Bedwell. We had asked Joe to stick close to their number 17 who had done most of the damage last time we met and anyone watching this season would know that there is not a better man marker in this league than the dependable Joe. We started with five in midfield and Foxy got involved early and looked strong. Foxy took a quick throw and Callum flicked on for Mick to shoot well but just over. The boy’s first goal came from Foxy winning the ball well from a goal kick and his pass found Mick who half dummied the keeper and slotted the ball low into the right hand corner 0-1. The second goal came soon after with some good work down the right by Jack and the ball being passed to Mick and he looked up to make a lay off pass to Lewis which seemed to have got away from him but Lewis showed unbelievable tekkers to wrap his left foot round it and finish it well into the bottom left hand corner 0-2. We swapped Jack for Keiran and continued with the five man midfield that was working well. Matt was coming more into this game after a quiet start and the combination of him, Callum and Foxy were running the show. Some more good pressure brought a strong shot from Keiran that went just over and a throw in also found Keiran who surged forward with power – it was good to have him back. The half finished on a high with the goal of the game. Callum pounced on a half clearance striking an unstoppable powerful right foot effort high into the net from just inside the penalty area – great goal for 0-3.

 

We were looking good all over the pitch, the midfield were working hard producing chances for a lively Mick, and the back four were doing some real intelligent defending with Joe and Brad containing their wide men well and Tommy T and JC rock solid in the heart of the defence standing tall. We swapped Rory with Charlie in goal, promising Rory a run on pitch and sent them out again.

 

Bedwell came out stronger and the defence and Charlie were called into action more this half. Charlie showed good positioning and handling early on with two good pressure relieving stops and JC made a brave block from a full on Bedwell striker’s shot. Combative midfield action ensued and fifteen minutes in we switched to 4-4-2 giving Foxy and Matt a rest and giving Rory a run out upfront. Mick put in a good tricky run but his shot went wide. Rory got caught offside but reacted to this brilliantly as the next time he beat the trap and ran onto a good Keiran pass to slide the ball in for 0-4. With five minutes to go Bedwell pushed on and we were slow clearing and the Bedwell striker finished a good move with a quality volley to make the score 1-4. A final positive move from the boys saw Foxy and Matt combining well to feed Rory but this time his shot went just wide. The game finished at 1-4 to Royston.

 

This was a much improved performance against a good Bedwell side compared to the last time we played them and our strong squad dug deep to produce a good all round team effort. The boys were lively, concentrated and sharp in front of goal. We defended well and contested all 50/50 balls well. Man of the match went to Rory for his first half efforts in goal and then an entertaining cameo 10 minutes upfront scoring a well taken goal. Special mentions for Foxy, Callum and Matt who bossed the midfield working hard to create good forward moves.

 

Andy, Nick, Ange and I would like to thank all the players, parents, carers and supporters for all their superb efforts, help and support during the season.