Beautiful crisp sunny sunday morning,
Phoenix U13's took to the damp heavy pitch to face AFC Barwell in the Chairman's Cup.
Once again we were not disappointed with a action packed game.
Coming off the Christmas break with only one training session the boys were eager to secure a win.
We played a 4-1-4-1 formation which helped secure a stronger midfield dominance enabling us to control the pace of play.
Our defence consisting of Matty, Cameron, Luke and Jack played a high line today securing more off sides against our opposition. Some good strong tackling and fine clearances were made, in fairness leaving Goalkeeper Rocco with very little todo and as I recal only four serious attemps on goal.
Playing a holding role that was shared between AJ and newcomer to the team Lucas sitting infront of the defenders making some crucial tackles and holding any attacks up for us to regroup and cover.
Aj managed to bag his first goal of the season and picking the ball up around the penalty spot with the goalie parrying his shot away and following through with pressure through two defenders and sneaking toe poked ball passed a stranded keeper.
Midfielders worked hard today with a lot of pressure off the ball to minimise the options of play for Barwell. Tom and Evan playing central midfield played some great balls out to our wing mids Mass and Dan who played some fantastic balls into the box to our striker Ollie.
Credit due to their goalkeeper he was outstanding and it was no surprise to hear he plays for Leicester City Academy.
Eventually an early ball accross to Ollie showing even with dodgy knees he is lightning fast and beat the defenders to a one on one against the goalie only to slide it past out of his reach to the bottom right corner.
Late into the second half after a flurie of attacks on goal we managed to get a penalty, to which Jack full of confidence took ownership and belted a beauty straight down the centre of the goal. Securing a well deserved win.
My view on todays performance is the victory was achieved by teamwork and they husttled and forced the play together as a united team.
Which reflected in about 70% of the game play.
Normally we pick a Man of the Match but today Smiffy and myself both agreed the whole team deserve the credit this week.
Well done boys I was entertained, pleased and proud with the whole performance today.
Thanks to our resident Linesman Danny.
A 12.30 KO for our U12's homegame today, we took on Croft playing on a very heavy pitch after the older boys had played on it.
Gus and myself stood in for our Manager Ikki as he is recovering from his heart attack and I am pleased to say he is well on the road to recovery and certainly hearing the news from todays game, safe to say he was trully ellated.
Strong defensive back four of Elijah, Mikaael, Muhammad and George played a hard game, with end to end action and never a dull moment.
These boys made some strong tackles and fine clearances.
Hamed playing in goal to help out until our resident keeper returns, had a great game made a few fine saves and also did some brilliant drop kicks leading to a couple of the goals. Supporting from the midfield Lucas, Abbas and Rhys played a forceful pressing game again some great tackling and fine one twos with some nifty backheals here and there, also supplying some great balls forward to resident striker Isaiah.
It must be said our boys were disciplined and showed good decorum against this team as they were very dirty in there play and tackles were harsh, late and dangerous at times. Which led the referee to hand out disciplines constantly and removing players from the game.
Goals galore for us with some beauty's they were too with Isaiah 4 goals, Luca 2 and Abbas hammering a penalty straight down the middle, helping secure the 7-5 victory.
My view of this game was one of the boys did not want to lose at all, they were up for the fight and prepared to deal with everything thrown at them. They really did show good discipline in not retaliating at all through all the harsh tackles and verbal abuse towards them.
So I applaud your behaviour, passion and fighting spirit.
Well done boys pleased and proud again today love to watch you play.
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