Date	Sunday 18th September 2011
Match	Hitchin Town Youth v Royston Town Youth
Competition	Royston Crow Youth Football League U13 Division 2
Result	Won 3-1
Royston Scorers	Charlie 2, Connor

First league match, first win! So many positives to take from the match that proved to be a typical “game of two halves”.

 

During our pre match team talk, we stressed to all how important it was that for the first 10-15 minutes we sat back a bit and not get too carried away with ourselves in search of early goals and to believe in our ability, to make sure we all did our jobs and to win our individual battles early.  To my delight the lads all responded and after a nervy first 5 minutes, played some very nice attractive football, moving the ball quickly and also being strong and assured defensively,  with each and every player doing his bit for the team.

 

As the confidence grew, we started to impose ourselves more and more in attack with Mason and Charlie causing havoc in the Hitchin back four. As chance after chance went begging both Chris and myself chewed away at our finger nails, then finally a little moment of magic from Charlie and our nerves (for now) had gone.  From then on we pressed and pressed Connor S & Kye joining in with some smart play with Gareth & Connor L supporting them well. It was Gareth who nearly doubled our lead when, from the edge of the box the ball broke to him, he shifted the ball to his right and struck a sweet shot that looked certain to ripple the net only for it to cannon off the bar, the rebound fell kindly to Kye on the right hand side of the area, controlled it and unleashed a fierce drive only to again be denied by the bar.

 

Jack, Josh, Matty & Ollie all looked like they could cope with Hitchin forwards with out to many issues, only being troubled by the odd set piece and with Ellis mopping up behind them, all was looking fine defensively.

  

Our lead was doubled by Connor S when he latched on to a ball from Mason after neat work from Jack & Kye, to take us in 2 nil up at half time.

 

A slight change at the break, with Owen coming on to give the hard working Ollie a well earned rest.

Then, in my opinion, I made the first mistake of the season in allowing the lads to sit down, They relaxed probably too much, they seemed flat and disinterested at the start of the 2^nd period, the work ethic had gone the team sprit had disappeared and we slowly let Hitchin back into the game.

 

Soon it would be 1-2 when a scramble in our box and a failed clearance found a Hitchin player on the edge of the area, his looping shot crept in just under the bar. This gave the opposition hope and drove them on, our defending as a team looked shaky at best and we were lucky to hang on at times.

 

Our two goal cushion was restored probably against the run of play, when once again Charlie produced just when we needed it.

 

In conclusion I believe this result shows that as a “team” we are more than a match for most, but if 1 or 2 players think the job is done at half time (and I include myself in that) we will struggle.  As I have said before this is a team game.

 

Well done to you all.