U11A v Ranby House Lost 3-1

This was a fine game, evenly contested, played with muscle and sinew straining. It wasn’t always a great advert for football, perhaps a little too committed and frenetic for that, but both sides had their better creative moments and both crafted a well-taken goal. A draw was a fair result.

Unfortunately, the paragraph above totally overlooks the opening thirteen minutes. They have a rather different story. Slow to start and ponderous in defence, on two occasions the U-11s let Ranby scramble through to score messy goals. Both times, multiple chances (countless in the heat of the action) to clear the ball were negligently, casually spurned. The gift of a two-goal lead proved simply too much to recover in such a tight match.

A lot of our best moments came from Harvey’s vision and creativity but in looking for the stars it’s impossible to overlook those whose whole approach is one of commitment and determination. These are boys who strive to do their best, no matter what, fierce, brave, undaunted. It may be more a matter of character than conscious decision but Jonah, Will, Ludo, Tom, Harvey and Angus all fitted the bill today. The man-of-the-match was shared between Harvey and Ludo (again). A special word for Ludo; he is still only nine years old, but his courage, strength and resolution stand out like a hilltop beacon.

MJS