Stevenage hosted their second home fixture in the Southern Counties League this morning against Woking Schools (Surrey). With a record of one victory and one defeat we were hoping to get back to winning ways today.

Unfortunately, we would be without the presence of Harrison at the heart of our defence, but the good news was that Henry could return to play after his recent ankle injury recurrence. So we started with Mason in goal and a back three of Henry, George and Rudy. Efe would be joined by Reggie in central midfield and Luke and Theo were asked to give us some attacking width with Arthur as our striker.
We had good options on the bench with Charlotte, Leo and Jeremy waiting to join the action during the first half.

It was a bit of a wet morning, but the pitch at The Sports Academy was in superb condition and we eagerly anticipated a good game. After a through warm-up I felt like the team was ready for action and raring to go.

During a frantic first half, the game was fairly even, I felt that we failed to deal with deep runs from the Woking attacking players as the opposition tried to hit us early with long balls. This led to one opportunity that was struck against the crossbar. At the other end, we were creating plenty of half chances, but for the final pass, cross or shot I felt that we were taking one touch too many. When we did knock the ball around quickly, we opened up the Woking defence several times.

We saw one chance come back off of the post, but then had a glorious chance to get to half-time in front when a Woking defender handled in the box. But Reggie saw his effort rebound off of the crossbar and it was scrambled away to safety.

I’m not quite sure how we got to the break at 0-0, but there were plenty of positives. We had to take care of the Woking players running in behind (which I have to say we managed a lot better in the second half) and we also had to make that final pass, cross or shot sooner (again, this was much-improved in the second half).

With Leo, Charlotte and Jeremy on the pitch now, and all making a good contribution, we started to take control of the second period. Jeremy was brought down with a clumsy tackle to give Reggie a second opportunity from the spot, which he dispatched well into the net. He then added a delightful second through a crowd of players to finally settle everybody’s anxiousness.

Stevenage now began to dominate and we pushed Henry into an advanced position and dropped Theo into a new defensive role on the left. Charlotte had put in some great challenges, but the moment of the game was when she saw an opportunity from distance and struck the ball into the net – the keeper mistiming his punch.

Henry was looking sharp up front, he brilliantly brought down a cross-field pass from Theo to strike home calmly after beating the last defender, and then we won a free-kick outside the area which he struck beautifully and it flew into the net – no keeper was going to stop that effort.

Just as time was ticking away, Woking broke and scored after Mason initially blocked a shot but they followed up to score the consolation goal that I know our defenders hated seeing, they had worked so hard to try and keep a clean sheet.

This was a pleasing all round team performance today, the players listened at half-time and made the necessary adjustments to win the game comfortably. Henry, Charlotte, George, Rudy and Theo all had spells at the back and they gave everything – defending like lions but also using the ball intelligently when playing out of defence. Behind them, Mason kept us in the game with some good second half saves. Efe, Luke and Reggie worked tirelessly in midfield, and it was their attack mindset that led to so many chances in the second half. Theo, Leo, Arthur and Jeremy all had time in wide positions and were a threat, breaking quickly and delivering good crosses, and Henry and Jeremy playing as strikers caused lots of problems in the Woking defence.

We still have lots of areas where we can improve but, overall, a very good team effort today and everyone (from Hertfordshire) went home smiling, if a little wet.

Stevenage & District U11 Team

The Valley Akademy

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