AWAY TO ST IVES 07/02/10

Today saw the team travel down the road to St Ives. The team had beaten these two weeks previous but I was conscious not to let the team get big headed and over confident. The game was an absolute cracker so I will apologise now if I miss something.

Now we have been working hard during training to try and rectify certain areas that we as a team have let ourselves down on during the season. One of them was getting in to the opponents first and attacking quicker. Well it might have worked as it only took the lads 2 mins to open the score sheet with a nice close range shot from Danny Lynch. However we let our concentration go which allowed St Ives to get back in to it. The game was scrappy at some stages but when the lads got hold of it they were attacking with some lovely flowing movement and diagonal balls. Just before the interval Charlie Sibthorp, who is in great goal scoring condition at the moment popped up to get us back in to the game. HT 3-2 to St Ives.

This half was end to end stuff and the boys knew they had to dig deep to get the equalizer and may be the win. It wasn’t long before Charlie Sibthorp again was in the right place to put away an un-cleared ball. That brought the game level but both teams were not finished there. The game then went St Ives’s way from which they scored and kept the pressure on young Billy Baker in goal. Soon after the restart Ben Chapman was on hand with his quick pace to get the leveller. After a few changes in the ranks we got at them and controlled the middle of the park a bit better. There were some scares as there usually is and for some reason we were being sloppy with our distribution. The lads needed to tidy up their ball control and pick up the lose balls more. With about 10 mins remaining Charlie Sibthorp latched on to a lovely through ball and calmly lobbed it over the approaching keepers head. Awesome. Now if we could just keep hold of the ball we should be able to see it out. However low concentration levels and a defensive error allowed St Ives to level with about 2 mins remaining. It was a real shame not to get all 3 points but at the end it was a fair result and at least we can take away 1 point and pride in the way that all of the team battled away to get us back in to the game. The St Ives team had obviously worked harder during their training sessions, as they weren’t the same team from 2 weeks ago, which is positive for them.

A massive well done lads for all of your effort. Yes 3 points would have been nice, but you proved that if you work hard together as a unit you can get yourself back in to any game if you need to. Man of the Match went to Jack Dean for coming on at short notice and getting in to the game fast. You have proved that your self confidence is back where it should be mate so keep up the hard work. Well done!

Thanks to all of the parents who drove to support and watch a really entertaining game of football on a cold afternoon. Thanks also to Dave Chapman for again running a tidy line. Well done lads. Keep working hard at training and listening to what you’re being told and the proof from all of this shows when you play on match days. Great all round effort from everybody today especially to the back four who are getting to know each other’s strength and weaknesses. It was good to see you all supporting each other. See you all at training on Friday. Enjoy your last week at school before half term.