Date	Sunday 4th November 2012
Match	Baldock Town Templars v Royston Town Youth
Competition	Royston Crow Youth Football League U15 Division 1
Result	Drew 1-1
Royston Scorers	James B

We made the short trip to Baldock to play Baldock Town Templars who were division 2 champions last year and a team we had never played at 11 a side they had started with a mix bag of results but were in mid table. Despite the awful weather this game was never going to be called off as it was played on a 3G pitch.

We train every week on a 3G pitch so it held no demons for us we just needed to adapt to playing a competitive match on it, we wanted to close them down and keep the ball on the floor and just be positive on the ball and not panic. Another injury jinx saw James R aggravating his heel problem in the warm up and he was unable to play.

This game came to life in the opening two minutes when both teams went close with chances. We then began to dominate when more bad luck saw Sam come off with a back strain which meant he could not play any further part in the match.AJ was also struggling but after a short rest came back on. We were making chances but not taken them.Baldock looked to contain more than attack but we made the important break through with 30 minutes on the clock when good inter change passing in   midfield saw a ball played into Rhys he was in a good position to have a shot but looked up and played the perfect ball to James B to score his first goal for the club and give us a deserved lead. We continued to press but had to settle for a slender half time lead.

We had to pass the ball better and keep it better and make sure we added to our lead as 1-0 is never enough we needed to keep our shape and not let them back in the game.

The second half started with us on the front foot but that second goal was just not coming and we started to get frustrated and because of this our touch went and we allowed Baldock to grow in confidence, they equalised from a corner which we did not clear properly and the ball ended up in the corner of the net. We continued to press for a winner but it was not to be we started to look a little rugged and tried to force things so made wrong decisions we seemed to lack urgency and to many boys were waiting for something to happen, and we had to settle  for a draw in a game we really should have won comfortably.

No excuses that's not my way but the pitch clearly played a part in this result but for me three things bothered me more firstly on to many occasions some players were not coming to the ball a real school boy error secondly our first touch on to many occasions let us down and thirdly we started to look to others to blame for things rather than concentrating on our own game and making sure our own house was in order.

At times today the football was excellent but this was a real jackal and Hyde performance and one I know the boys will be working hard to make sure does not happen again.