Date	Wednesday 24th April 2013
Match	Royston Town Youth v Elsenham Youth
Competition	Royston Crow Youth Football League U15 Division 1
Result	Lost 0-2

We had come off the back of two good wins in friendly’s against our own Under 16’s and Baldock Under 16’s where we played some good football and showed against bigger more physical players that we could stand up to the challenge and work just as hard with the ball as without it. Today we welcomed Elsenham who since Christmas have showed massive improvement in there results and I reminded the boys this would be a completely different proposition from the team we beat 9-0 in November. The message before the game was to keep it simple which is all around their decision making.

We started well and created two good chances in the first five minutes but failed to trouble their keeper on either occasion. Although we had the lions share of the ball Elsenham always looked dangerous on the break, we started to complicate things by doing the exact opposite of what we had spoken about. Too often we held onto the ball to long and we were making life difficult for ourselves and you could see the frustration creeping in along with the fact Elsenham were making life difficult for us with their work rate when they did not have the ball. We continued to press for the first goal but it would not come as our passing which has been a feature in recent games deserted us in the final third. The half time whistle went with the game all square and in the balance.

We asked for someone to get a grip of the game and show that bit of quality that would open up a resilient Elsenham team which to their credit had worked tirelessly in that half. Keep it simple was again the message and not to get frustrated.

Again we started quite well but again did not convert the chances we made. With twenty minutes to go a through ball found Rhys who ran on to score but the linesman was correct in his decision as Rhys had crept half a yard off side. The more the game went on the more desperate we got with too many long balls and rushed passes that were not finding their target. We decided to go three at the back as if we were going to have any realistic chance of winning the league we needed to win this game. With fifteen minutes left an Elsenham midfielder picked the ball up and went on a diagonal run from right to left before picking out the lively centre forward who hit his shot low and hard into the net. Our response to this was very disappointing too many players through the towel in and seemed to take defeat too readily. We were pushing more men forward which left gaps at the back which meant Elsenham looked dangerous every time that ventured forward, one such move ended in a clumsy tackle and the ref quite rightly pointed to the spot, the penalty was despatched and our slim title challenge realistically finished their. The game ended with Elsenham deservedly taking all three points.

We had harsh words after this game, I have on many occasions praised this team but they are now at an age where they have to take criticism as well. Desire is a word I have used so often this season and I am afraid too many of them tonight showed very little especially when we went a goal down, having a bad game happens and I accept that but what I cant accept is lack of desire and effort. We will now look forward not back and hopefully we will not get a repeat of this performance.

Its only fair to praise the efforts and determination of a very much improved Elsenham side who in that second half out played us in every department, they came with a game plan which through hard work they saw through, they also played some nice football and were well organised and in their centre forward posses a top player although this was very much a great team effort