Date	Sunday 27th November 2011
Match	Baldock Town Crusaders v Royston Town Youth Eagles
Competition	Royston Crow Youth Football League U12 Division 2
Result	Won 2-6
Royston Scorers	Lewis A 2, Billy 2 (1 Pen), Tom, Callum
Man of Match	Jamie P (solid as a rock in defence, tidied up any through balls)

This group of young men never cease to amaze me.

 

Every week they seem to up their game another notch and are truly getting better and better with every match they play.

 

This week we visited Baldock. The wind was blowing in gusts but otherwise the weather was perfect for football and we started off against the wind and slightly up hill. We had decided that if we could hold for the first 30 minutes we could then really go at them for the second half with the wind at our backs.

 

It was soon apparent that Baldock had a very tricky striker who had bags of pace, plenty of skill and wasn’t afraid to use it. They attacked from the off with balls either over the top or down the right wing. We had trouble in the first 15 minutes trying to adjust to the speedy attack and it wasn’t surprising that we went a goal behind after we were caught out with one of the through balls.

 

However, as in previous weeks, this seemed to galvanise the lads and we quickly started to use our own speedy forward (Lewis A) to provide some great chances. Lewis W was playing on the left wing and he was soon sprinting down the left and crossing the ball in to cause trouble in the Baldock defence.

 

Our equaliser came from some great skill from Lewis A.  He received the ball just inside the Baldock half, beat 2 players , sped towards goal and slotted it in top right. 1 – 1. Our second goal came from some great quick thinking from Frankie. We had a throw in on the right which he quickly threw to Lewis A who had found space behind the defence. One on one with the keeper, Lewis passed the ball into the back of the net for 2 –1 to the Eagles.

 

We kept the pressure up, and our defence was now dealing with the Baldock attack much better. Jamie P and Jamie C were reading the through balls much better, and Stephen had the pacey forward in his back pocket. This left Tom, Frankie and Billy to dominate midfield and continue to get the balls through to the wingers of Lewis W and Callum.

 

Our third goal came from another Lewis A break away. He took the ball wide though, and just as we thought he had taken it too wide he lobbed it into the box for Billy to bravely head in our third. 3 – 1 and half time came.

 

The half time talk was easy. Keep up the pressure, don’t slack off the tackles and get some more goals.

 

From the kick off that’s exactly what the lads did. We were at them from the off and quickly were rewarded with a goal for Callum who had started some great runs down the right wing. 4-1

 

We didn’t stop and another of Lewis A’s runs into the box was rewarded with a penalty after he was shoved over whilst baring down on goal. This resulted in the first yellow card I have seen at this age group! Billy slotted the resulting penalty away with his usual calmness and we were  5-1 up.

 

There is always a time in a match where people switch off, and this was where we did. It was a sloppy 5 minutes that let Baldock score their second. However, the lads came back strong again after this lapse and Tom managed to get the ball in the net after some penalty box pin ball to make the final score 6-2 to the Eagles.

 

Another strong display from the team and we move up the table. There are some tough matches to come over the winter, but with the sort of team we have and the belief they all have in their undoubted ability, they will prosper and succeed no matter who they play.

 

Well done to everyone.

Squad – Jamie C (Captain), Jamie P, Charlie Catton, Charlie Alsop, Stephen, Frankie, Callum Leake, Lewis Wood, Jack, Tom, Lewis Anderson, Billy