Andover beat Romsey

Whoop Whoop! Andover 1 - Romsey 0. That warms my ears, which were cold at the side of the Romsey Hampshire Collegiate pitch this morning. Having said that, the fact that you have to walk for about 3 miles to get to the astro gets the blood flowing.

Today's performance was another step along the journey to world U12B domination. It was a great spectacle to watch and Romsey looked dangerous down their left hand side. Their number 21 had some lovely, aerial skills and skinned us in the first third (while also almost removing one of our player's teeth in the process). But a good work ethic and some good marking in defence meant that they only broke through to our D on 3 or 4 occasions. Alex Helsdon's performance at the back alongside Haydn Carr reduced my blood pressure. There were also some good, strong tackles from Suhail Zabarah and Harrison Stepney that stopped Romsey in their tracks.

Today was a midfield heavy squad, meaning that some boys who prefer to attack were doing a stint protecting the goal instead. Not that it needed much protection, as Ivo Briant-Evans had a great game, coming out and intimidating the attackers when needed. Well done to Archer Ritchie-Green and Rory Ethelstone for helping out in Defence (and doing rather well).

We are starting to distribute the ball more and over a greater distance. Both Hari Putt and Joshua Taylor had very busy games in the centre of the pitch, having to deal with much of the wrestling for control of the ball. At one point, Hari had no options for a pass so decided to dribble past 4 players and attack the D instead (nice if you have those skills as a backup). The midfield was swapped around every 10 minutes with William Sawtell, Peter Thomson, Rory and Archer on the left, giving options. Although some play went through our left wing, much of our attack came up the right side with Xavier Cash showing his ability to get round the back of defenders. Given that I made so many changes, the boys did well to maintain some formation. Importantly, when Fergus Cracknell and Rory swapped into the centre midfield roles, we did not see any change to our domination. Credit is due to these 2, as I have just checked and they both played in 4 different positions on the park today.

Up front, Alex Birmingham (Captain) had a frustrating day with many good touches but no end product. I think at one point he even managed to stop a shot that was goal bound! He stayed high and there were 2 great breaks where their defender did us a massive favour by effectively clearing a lovely line straight into the D. Their keeper (our choice for players' player) had a great game and came out early to intimidate Alex. However, Alex fought hard during another passage of play and deftly dragged the ball back before pushing the ball behind the keeper for the only goal of the match.

At the end of the match, their coach congratulated Oliver Allott for getting into such good positions as left wing...if only the team could get the ball to him! And that is where we can improve. We are starting to understand our formation, meaning that people are in space and free. What we are not yet doing is making this very obvious to whoever has the ball. We saw this in training yesterday where the loudest shout gets the pass. We can ease the pressure on the midfield by those in defence making themselves known for the sensible option of a back pass when appropriate. But passing the ball backwards only comes when you are confident that it is a positive move, rather than giving them an attacking advantage. And this is why we continue to focus on the push, slap and hit. On occasion today, there were some very, very, very elongated wind ups for a slap, which were spotted by the opposition and pounced on. A strong push does the trick in many situations.

There was even some quick decision making today. At one point, Joshua took such a quick 16 that I was only starting to shout when I realised that it had been taken (I hate being beaten by my son!). However, we had also developed a great attacking position in the final 3rd of the match when a long corner was given. Coincidentally, Joshua was on the ball again and the route to the D was open in front of him, as Romsey were still wondering what was happening. It is this understanding of the rules (and what is going to happen next) that will allow us to exploit the opposition's lack of focus and positioning.

I talked about their number 21 at the start of this epic tale. Well, he did very little in the latter 2 thirds, as the boys listenened to the coaching and got in their early with a strong, flat stick. The poor lad was visibly losing his mojo, as every time he got the ball, he was pounced upon by our midfield.

And finally, a thank you to the Romsey U16 who volunteered to umpire. Had he known it was going to be so frantic, I think he may have chosen otherwise. He looked exhausted at the end.

Bring on Trojans!