Date	Sunday 21st October 2012
Match	Sawbridgeworth Town v Royston Town Youth
Competition	Royston Crow Youth Football League U15 Division 1
Result	Won 1-5
Royston Scorers	Sam (2), AJ, Richard, Rhys

A tough away trip to unbeaten Sawbridgeworth today and due to a school trip and unavailability we had thirteen players to choose from, the pitch had a slope but other wise was in good condition.

We wanted to defend the slope first half so it was important that our wide players helped defend and we kept our shape we had a game plan and it was important we stuck to it. The boys have been working hard on there first touch at training this week so we expected it to improve today and we reminded then again about not admiring there passes, we had to match there physical side as well to have a chance of winning today.

Not the greatest of starts for us as with only seven minutes on the clock after winning a tackle on half way Callum was taken out off the ball and was forced off which meant we had to reshuffle the side and make some positional changes. We began to win the midfield battle with Richard and AJ stamping there authority on the match and when the ball was played into Rhys by Richard he played the perfect ball inside the full back for Sam to run onto and finish well. We were really playing with confidence now and knocking the ball around really well and number two soon followed this time Richard threaded the perfect ball for Sam to once again finish confidently. Sawbridgeworth rallied and began to come into the match and fifteen minutes before half time cut the deficit with a good goal of there own although I think we could have dealt with the situation better. We then showed the other side of us by digging in and putting our bodies on the line as Sawbridgeworth enjoyed there best spell in the game but we then started to counter attack and won ourselves a corner. James R took it Sawbridgeworth did not deal with it and when it eventually fell to AJ after a short pass from Richard he drilled his shot into the net. We saw the half out looking very strong and composed.

I was really happy with the boys who had shown real maturity and we saw both sides to their game the excellent football and there batterling. We wanted the same commitment second half and it was important to score the next goal to keep the very vocal home support quite.

We started the half on the front foot without creating any real chances but we continued to look the better side. This was a real football match with both sides fully committed and the tackles were flying in it was hard but fair although the ref was lenient at times but it was the same for both teams. We were getting more and more on top and sealed victory with twenty minutes left when Ross forced the defender to concede a corner,AJ whipped it in and one thing you should never do is give Richard a free header this is what happened and he made no mistake.Sawbridgeworth did not give up the fight but brave defending from Jack M,Alasdaire,Bradley and James R kept them out. We wrapped the points up with a fantastic fifth started at the back with Bradley onto Jack M then Eamon it was threaded into midfield then out wide before it came to Rhys whose shot from twenty five yards nestled in the corner to put the gloss on a performance that had the lot good football passion and team ethic.

I told the boys how proud I was today this was the best performance of the season by far and this is down to how hard they have been working at training and their desire to get better they deserve a big pat on the back today but I will be reminding them that they must continue to work hard and not rest on there laurels.