After a nice six week break, today we gathered the boys back together to kick-start our District season with a fixture against the Stevenage FC U11 academy side. It has been a while since we were together, so we tried to keep our game plan simple today and went over a few basics to recap what had been learned last June and July.

Our only piece of match action as a squad was the encouraging performance up at Cambridge United before the break, and the team worked very hard out of possession that day to try and win the ball back quickly, and it was our desire and hunger that impressed me the most – the same attitude would be required today.

As this was a chance for the boys to impress the Stevenage FC staff, we took the decision not to play any of our academy-signed players today so that others had the chance to seize the opportunity and show us what they had. Therefore we opted for a 3-4-1 formation with Jacob Paulus in goal and a back three of Sonny Gardner, Teddy O’Brien and Lenny Crowter. We used Harley Deards and Lenny Georgiou in central midfield positions with Ollie Carr and Jai-Dea Molton asked to provide us with some width and attacking threat down each flank. This left Tanaka Gono as our lone striker, and so it was important that we reacted quickly to support him in attacks, and he also had to be strong enough to hold the ball up and linking up with our midfield.

With three substitutes on the side, we planned on playing everybody for at least 40 of the 60 minutes - which would result in regular changes and a rotation of positions for some players – which is all part of the learning experience.

I thought we started quite positively on the first quarter of the game, matching Stevenage all of the pitch and defending well and in numbers. We were having some success with Ollie down the right and his pace got him in behind and causing problems for the Stevenage defence. We were then awarded a penalty when Jai-Dea was fouled from behind when there didn’t look any danger as he had his back to goal. Ollie stepped up and converted well to give us the lead but Stevenage almost equalised with a good shot that came back off of the post.
In the second quarter the lead was extended when once again Ollie Carr raced away down the right and cut the ball across the goal where Jai-Dea had one effort blocked and Demi followed up to get the ball over the line for 2-0. Just as I was beginning to think we’d reach the halfway point with a two goal cushion, we shot ourselves in the foot when we lost possession near our own goal and allowed an easy goal for 1-2.

Within two minutes the scores were level when a poor goal kick went straight to their striker who gratefully accepted the chance to equalise just before the break. And within minutes of the re-start of the third quarter it became 2-3 after another error at the back – our mistakes were proving costly after we had worked so hard to get in front. Our heads could have dropped, but the goals were flying in now and Lenny Georgiou scored with a lovely effort for 3-3 before a strong finish to the quarter allowed Stevenage to gain a 6-3 lead, the second of those goals was a well-taken header. Stevenage then had a penalty which came back off of the post, and when their attacker had a second stab at it (which should have been offside) Jacob did ever so well getting up to save the close-range effort and we managed to clear the ball to safety.
In the final quarter we asked for a big effort and to try and keep the score reasonable, we had lost a bit of our energy and enthusiasm and it was important that we responded well. We should really have grabbed a couple of goals towards the end, but two efforts went narrowly wide of the post whilst at the other end Tyler Murray was excellent making two or three really good saves. Eventually Stevenage found a 7th and proved too strong on the day – but that was to be expected.

The boys know that they made a number of unforced errors that proved costly (they usually are at this level) and they can learn from this moving forward. We still have a lot of work to do in training regarding our shape, our transition and maybe getting organised for corners etc. and we will improve as the season unfolds. Credit to Stevenage though, they didn’t let the 0-2 scoreline affect them and they had a number of good individuals that changed the game – particularly the striker that came on in the second quarter and ran his socks off for the rest of the game causing us all sorts of problems.

A worthwhile experience and we now move to the St Albans tournament where again we can get some much needed practice over a number of short games.