A frustrating day for our under 12 girls and one that saw them narrowly missing out on a place in the IAPS finals. They began positively, scoring their first goal in the match against Grace Dieu in the first half; then capitalising on it in the second half, by scoring another to win this game 2 - 0. In the second game they faced Foremarke Hall and showed little confidence in the first half. They held their own initially, but then all of the basics went out the window, with them not clearing the ball sufficiently in defence and hanging back from making tackles. When they were on the attack, there was nobody to find the final push at goal and get on the end of Georgia's terrific through balls. The defence continually sent the ball down the middle channel, where it was quickly turned around by the Foremarke attack. Half time came and saw us trailing 0 - 4, leaving our supporters disappointed and coach frustrated. After some stern words at half time, the girls regained some of their earlier form and used the wings effectively to press the ball forward. We matched Foremarke in this half, scoring two goals as they did, if only we had played like this for the entire game!
The girls battled hard in the game against St. Olave's, having plenty of opportunities to score. We once again failed to find the final finish, however, coming so close on so many occasions. Our defence worked well and went in for tackles, clearing the ball to the wings. Imo C, our goalie was superb in this game, making some great saves and kicking the ball far. One defending slip up enabled St Olave's to score a goal, just before full time and try as we might we couldn't finish off our through balls to regain control of the game; a great pity as we had spent the majority of this game dominating the play and St. Olave's went on to be overall winners of the tournament.
A bit more confidence, self-belief and determination are needed under 12s, if you want to win fight for a goal and keep on fighting until you have made it happen. So often today it was there for the taking, but a few players cannot do it on their own, you all need to be involved in the process. It is now up to you all to learn from the experience and ensure you are a lot more successful in the next tournament.
Thank you to everybody who came to support, we really appreciated your encouragement from the sidelines.
DLB
Posted on
Fri, October 14, 2011
by DLB