Assists: James & ANO
Man of the match: James
Substitute of the Week: Sajid
Special Skills Award: Ahmed: cool finish & (a close second) Robbie: a great run & pass
Another Saturday, another closely fought contest, another single goal Emmanuel win. At times it feels like we’re in some kind of wonderland.
The Derby City League table makes astonishing reading:
UNDER 11 DIVISION ONE P W D L F A PTS
ALLESTREE JUNIORS 12 11 1 0 105 3 34
RIPLEY TOWN COLTS 11 9 2 0 53 7 29
CODNOR BOYS 12 6 1 5 38 33 19
ILKESTON ATHLETIC 11 6 0 5 44 25 18
LOUGHBOROUGH EMMANUEL 12 6 0 6 18 60 18
MICKLEOVER ALL STARS 12 5 0 7 32 41 15
BELPER SPORTS 11 1 0 10 5 46 3
ALLESTREE JUNIORS COLTS 13 1 0 12 9 89 3
My advice: Print this table out, show it to your mates & (with your Mum’s permission) pin it up on your bedroom wall. It may never get any better than this.
The good stuff yesterday:
· The Colts manager/parents were friendly & supportive. Thank you.
· Thomas had another boring morning in goal.
· With the wind against us in the first half we defended superbly, limited their chances & kept a clean sheet. Four months ago we would have been 3 or 4 down at half time.
· Sajid/James/Matthew/Kirk – all would sooner play further forward but all played in defence. You did the job your team needed & you will get more pitch time with this sort of attitude. Well done.
· Josh – Outstanding (again).
· Ahmed – Was there any blade of grass that he didn’t visit?
· There were signs that we are passing the ball better up front.
· There were signs that we are starting to use the flanks better – James’ surging runs down the right in the first half were particularly helpful.
· We created some very good chances in the second half and should really have scored more goals.
· Both goals. Kieron – right place, right time. Ahmed – probably the only player in our team who was calm enough to finish off a chance in a tense second half.
The not so good stuff:
We cracked talking to each other last week but this week one of our best talkers decided to ‘talk’ unnecessarily to an opponent. The lads are still kids and they’re still learning. We’ll respond proportionately but I was disappointed and Wednesday night’s selection may be influenced by what happened.
The challenge:
We have improved dramatically this season. If anybody had told me after our first 5 matches (won:0 drawn:0 lost:5 goals conceded: 59) that we would have 18 league points after 12 matches I would have suggested that they visit their GP.
Our improvement has come through getting organised on the pitch, playing a system that suits where our players are at and selecting players in the positions that best suit the team.
The Colts proved yesterday that the standard in our league will get better and better. They were a much better team than the one we played before Christmas.
Our players shouldn’t be under any illusions. If we don’t improve we will be bottom of the stack next season. Further improvements will be much more difficult to make than the ones we have made so far. Passing and ball control will be critical to these improvements. The lads have got a fantastic chance to improve these skills with this Summer’s training. The ones that use this chance by working hard are likely to be the players that will feature next season. The lads that don’t focus and just do whatever they feel like at training will struggle to get into the squad next season.
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