| |
Under 10’s match next week against Brook End Colts I have been told that half of the team will
not be available to play the match as they will be away on a Cubs
sleep over aboard HMS Belfast, lucky lads.
First of all before we start to think about the match I would like to welcome Liam to the team. He played in the friendly last week and performed well enough to be given the chance to join the other lads in the Hornets team who play in the matches at weekends. We are looking now for some good improvements from Liam to strengthen up the squad for the remaining matches in the 2006/7 season. We started to think that we wouldn’t have a team to play for us with 5 minutes to go before kick off .6 players turned up on time with the others down to play rolling up late. Late nights before a match, going out drinking and giving it large (I’ve heard that is a phrase that the lads use these days, not too sure what it means but it can’t be that bad, I hope) is a fine at the big clubs in the Premier League. We must get to games on time so we can warm up those muscles before we start kicking a ball around for an hour. Well we had a team now ready to face Syresham
on a very nice muddy pitch. We lost the toss and ended up playing
up the slope, hard work was in front of us. We started well making lots of attacks on their goal, good passing in front of goal and plenty of shots on target, took a little while to break through their defence but it did eventually come. Matt took his chance well and hit the back of the net 1-0 to HHFC. While all of the attacking up hill dominated
most of the first half, Syresham was also making some very good
break through’s from mid field. But they came across 3 very
good defenders on the day, nothing was getting passed the Ben’s
and Luci show today. Ben B was playing an absolute blinder , nothing
was going to hold him back in this game. Ben P was covering the
centre and dropping across to fill the slots left by Ben B and
Luci as the went forward. Poor old Dan could have taken his homework
with him to complete as he didn’t really have too much to
do. But when he was called upon to make a save or clear the ball
forward he kept his concentration well and did everything asked
of him. We made plenty of good attacks but could get nothing to
show for all of our efforts. James was playing a very clever game
today, picking the ball up half way and making some very good
passes and some excellent corner kicks came in. Nathan and Matt
very putting in some good work also but ended up with nothing
to show for it. Half time came around quickly as all of the action made time go by very fast. A well deserved rest for a couple of minutes and time to take on some water. It had been going very well so no complaints to make. We started the second half with the team that came off and the intention was to make lots of subs during the next session to keep fresh legs out there and hopefully keep the lead and win this game. Playing down the slope makes attacks better but you still have to run up the slope to get back into position to defend. We had to cover the centre circle well today as we had come up against a goalie with a very good kick and we had to make sure that we got every ball or they would be away on an attack. Ben B picked up a ball from the centre circle and just kept going forward and ended up finding the back of the net 3-0 to HHFC. Nathan came off for a well deserved rest so with Ben B’s success in mind I pushed him up front giving Liam a chance to come on in defence. Our forwards went on some very good attacking raids working together well and just missing out on some more goals. We had lots of rolling subs in the second half and I had started to move the lads around in different positions to what they would normally play in, good experience for them to gain. Matt came back into defence making way for Luci to go forward, also we pulled Dan out of goal putting him up front replacing him with Ben B. Boy did the fireworks start to go off, the lads did everything asked of them and some more. Gregor had been playing in defence this week rather than up front where he would normally play, also last week in the friendly he played in goal for us so he had now experienced almost every position on the pitch (not many could that so a well done to Gregor). With only the 2 subs this week to make use of, everyone had worked that extra bit harder for the team and had played out of position for some of the match. That is a good thing to know as a manager, should we get injuries, people ill not available for games then I now know who can perform out of position. All we now have to do is get some of the lads playing like they did last season (Nathan was a top scorer last term but is going through a Rooney period right now but like the big man Nathan is still going forward and doing the right things and very soon it will all come back for him so Jason be prepared to make some payments out soon). After a brilliant well fought match today the lads had to pick their Man Of The Match.Not easy today as they had all done well, but Ben B ended up with the title winning by just 1 vote from James. Play the way you did today James in the next match and you must get the title of Man Of The Match. Well done guys a most enjoyable match
to watch and Syresham gave us a real good game. If we get a slot
with no matches I would like to arrange a friendly with them as
they are a nice club to play against. They like us know the meaning
of Fairplay and you will always get a good honest match with them. 11th November 2006 A good chance to see what the lads who do not normally play can do, we need to have a few more registered so this was a great chance available to us. The team for today was: Everyone was very keen and turned nice and early for the game ready to go through the warming up routines and collect their Hornets strip. We started the first half very well
and defended our goal in excellent style. Deanshanger had a very
competitive team out today, meaning business from the start. 4th November 2006 Our first step into a knock out cup competition, and only 8 players available to select from. It’s a cold morning with lots of ground frost, I got there at 8.45 and started to sweep the frost off of the nice white lines laid down, took half an hour but seemed worthwhile. The biggest laugh of all – by the time we got to kick off all of the frost had melted and there was a lovely marked out pitch waiting for us to play on – lesson 1 learnt!! Most of the lads were asked to play out of position this week in the hope that we might pull off a result. Dan-old safe hands took his place in goal, James had to come back into centre of defence with Ben P dropping over to right back and Luci covering left back. Up front Matt had to drop back into James’ usual position behind the front men, leaving Nathan and Gregor as the strike force, Bradley was asked this week to be a forward player rather than cover in Defence. That’s the team we had to get us into round 2 and do us proud. The plan was to defend as well as we could and keep them out and ensure that the guys up front were well supported with forward passes. The plan went well and everyone did great jobs in their allotted positions. We were up and down that pitch like a fiddlers elbow, the front guys doing some very good work but nothing to show for their efforts. At about 20 minutes City Colts were given a penalty, Dan doing a superb save at the feet of their striker who ended up on his back. Got to admit their penalty was taken in text book style, hard low and right in the corner just out of reach of Dan’s out stretched arms. 0-1 down, but still time to do something. Half time came still being the one goal down. Oranges and a chat about what we would do playing down the slope got the lads going again. Without many minutes played Matt hit home the equaliser, just what we needed to get us going again. A brilliant bit of rolling substitution happened next when Brad came off to have a well earnt rest before going back on again and Gregor went back on to take up a strike position. Now I’m not sure who was more surprised when within a minute Gregor put the ball in the back of the net – we were in front 2-1. This got the lads really moving and getting more shots on target, and then we got the chance to take a penalty. Up stepped James and placed the ball on the spot, calmly walked back turned and cracked a perfect shot with plenty of power behind it, straight into the back of the net in true Shearer style 3-1 to the Hornets. Shortly afterward another attack went forward, Gregor was doing some good goal poaching and ended up getting his second goal of the day – 4-1 to the Hornets. City colts gave a good game and were unlucky not to score on a couple of occasions, but lady luck was on the Hornets side today. A good all round performance from the team today, everyone doing what was asked of them. Let’s now wait to see who we draw in Round 2. The lads picked Gregor as their man of the match for 2 well taken goals; he will be our captain at our next match against Deanshanger next Saturday. Well done guys and lets keep up the
good work we have all done this season so far. League Cup Match - Round 1 Playing at Home on
4th November (Time to be arranged) Under 10’s B squad update: A friendly match has been arranged with Deanshanger for Saturday 11. November (time and place to be confirmed later but I will offer the village school as a possible venue.) I will need the guys who are not registered with the League and do not play in the Under 10’s matches. If you have not returned your HHFC registration form and paid your £30 please do as soon as I will not be able to play your child in this match. Please let me know if you cannot make this date. As said before, I am looking for
some extra players to register with the League so I can use more
players at our Division 4 games; this is a good chance to shine
guys. I spoke to their Under 10’s Team Manager
the other night who is in the same position as HHFC with player’s
who are not registered with the league but turn up for training
each week. We are trying to arrange a game for a Saturday morning
some time between now and our next league fixture in November.
Not sure if we go there or they come to us, I’ll let you
know what is happening shortly. I need to get some more players registered with the league so they can play in the matches. This will mean that there will be more players fighting for places rather than just turning up for a game. You will have to play hard to earn your place. Match Report 21/10/06 Southside Stingrays v
HHFC What a difference a week makes in football, last week we had a team of players who could do no wrong, this week…………………………………??????? Same names, same faces but a different team playing this game today. I won’t go too deeply into how the game went this week but just say that we forgot how to play as a team. Last week we all worked for each other, this week for most of the game I thought we didn’t know each other, we were playing as strangers. The guys up front must work together better and pass to each other, pass and run into space to get the ball back. This way we work our way down the pitch and end up in front of goal giving us a chance to take a shot. We can do it because I’ve seen you do it, and score goals. Poor old Nathan must have a sore throat from all of the calling he was making for the ball to be passed to him. Defence must also work together better, cover each other when we drop out of position and most importantly protect our goal. We have worked on it in training with the cones on the pitch, so we know what area we have to cover and where to go if someone get’s pulled out of position. This was a very frustrating game to watch from the side, we where evenly matched with Southside but they worked us out better than we did them. They knew that our defence was not working correctly so they played lots of 1 2’s running between our players. They had endless amounts of shots on target, thankfully Dan played a very good game for us today in goal. He made some very brave saves at player’s feet and kept his game going when they ended up scoring against us. Many times it was Dan against 2 attackers with our defence running back the wrong side of player and goal. The good thing from this is that we hit the back of the net 3 times, well done Ben P who scored again this week and to Matty who got 2 more to his tally this season. Having got it back to 3-3 I thought we had the chance to sneak a win from this game, but we let them get the 4th and winning goal with very little time to do anything about it. Alfie and I now know what we have to work on at training sessions hopefully getting us back on track and into winning ways again. We have no more games now until 18 Nov when we entertain Syresham at home, enough time to try and put things right. After the game we voted for a Man of the Match title, this week it was well earnt by our trusty goalie Dan. So next game Dan will be Captain and hopefully doing a lot of shouting from the back getting all of those in front of him working for each other. REMEMBER GUYS, WE WIN AS A TEAM BUT WE ALSO LOOSE AS A TEAM. Final result:
Southside Stingrays 4 v 3 Hanslope Hornets 16. 10. 2006 To date we are running as a group with about
14 plus lads turning up to training each week, this is a good
figure to work with and easy to control. 14.10.2006 HANSLOPE HORNETS v PITSTONE & IVINGHOE “NEWS FLASH – POSSIBLE GOAL OF THE SEASON HAS BEEN SCORED TODAY” see below for more details: A very important game this one for the lads,
this was going to be their very first League Match ever, no more
playing to have fun and not worrying too much if we got beat by
a better side. No, this time around we have to win points just
like the big boys do and get a standing in Division 4 to hold
on to. Now I could go through this report one goal
at a time but that would take too long. Let’s go through one player at time and explain their contribution to this game. Daniel E-Goal Keeper, ended up with not too much to do but kept his concentration going all of the time and when called upon to do his job he pulled off some brilliant saves. There could have been more goals against us but for Dan’s really good efforts. His big long kicks fed the guys up front and gave them the chance to attack the Pitstone goal on many occasions. Luci C-Left Back, hardly never puts a foot wrong in a game these days and he’s playing a year up on himself. He now has command in this position and knows what he has to do without you telling him now. Also likes to go forward when we are attacking, remember when you do that you also have to run back into position. Played a good solid game and supported the rest of the defence when called upon. Ben P-Central Defender, played an absolute blinder today. He now knows when to go forward into attack and support the lads up front and when to hold back to cover the defence positions. This week he went up to support the attack and ended up with a well timed goal, on top of that he could have got a couple more if luck had been on his side. Ben B-Right Back, also knows what his role
is without being told. He’s got a strong kick and tackles
very well without any fears. Bradley-Right Back, came on to take over from Ben and to gain more valuable experience for matches. This guys always looks like he’s just come out of a shower after running around, he’s really getting himself so hot from chasing that ball. Brad’s now got a heck of a good tackle on him and puts it to good use, I know as I’ve felt it when we train on Tuesday nights. We’ll need to make good use of that skill in the coming weeks. James-Central Attack, always plays to his full potential and just gets better and better in this role. His passing today was top notch, he kept feeding the 2 lads up front unselfishly. For all of his efforts he bagged a couple of well taken goals. It’s great to see his celebrations when he hits the back of the net, lets see them a few more times this season James, don’t let us stop you being top scorer. Nathan-Attacker, he came on to pick up where Gregor left off and was always chasing around up front pulling defenders out of position and making space for the other guys to attack goal. He’s going through a Rooney spell at the moment, almost making it but hasn’t been lucky enough to hit the back of the net yet. Don’t worry as it will come back again and you will be costing your Dad a small fortune again at the end of the season. Gregor-Attacker, didn’t get too many chances this time as he only played for a small part of the first half. I was most impressed with the fact that he knew he couldn’t play for too long but still made an effort to get there to be part of the team. Well done Tracey and many thanks for the effort made, it was most appreciated. Mathew-Attacker, now this is what is known
as a Captains Game, leading by example. I was really expecting a much harder game than this but we never really allowed Pitstone to settle down into their stride. A tremendous 8 – 1 victory was recorded for our first ever league game. Guys check out the MKDJ7’s website and see who is on top of Division 4 this week, be proud, be very proud of what you have achieved. The funniest thing happened at half time, having had a well deserved drink I called them all in to discuss the plan for the second half and when I looked around they had all gone off to the little wooded area at the side of the pitch and they all started to water the trees leaving me all on my own……………………………….nerves I guess? When we got together after the game to discuss how we thought it had gone we went for the usual Man of the Match vote. By a majority vote it was decided that they all deserved to have the honour today and that was something I was not about to argue with. Well done guys you were all worthy of it this time around. So we won our first league game in fine
style, let’s try to keep it going for our match this weekend
against Southside. You guys have set the standard to follow now
and we have to keep it up don’t we??? The fixtures to the end of this year have now been posted; please make notes in your diaries and wall charts as follows:
We are going to be playing in the Under 10’s Division 4
this season. Tuesday 10th October is to be the last session we have this year training on the grass; it’s now getting too dark to play safely out there. We will now move into the astro surface area at the far corner of the park and train under floodlights. So, from Tuesday the 17th October, please do not wear studded boots for training sessions and ensure you have trainers on or better still astro boots. Parents
please remember that I will not let the lads leave the astro area
at the end of the training sessions on their own and walk home
alone. Your help and co-operation with this one will be greatly appreciated. Regards Mick Under 10’s
match report 23-9-06 Team Captain: Daniel H It was like a Charles Dickens story early Saturday morning, peering through the early morning mist and fog to find a cold and very dull morning welcoming us. It had to get better, but would it……………………………. I arrived at the school an hour before the
game would start with Alfie to get the pitch all set up ready
for our last grading game of the season. We got all of the flags
out and the 2 big bags containing the goal sections. We headed
out into the gloom to set it all up, then we spotted it. Who had
nicked the pitch lines, there was not a line to be seen. All of
the rain we had the night before had washed every line away, aahhh. Mick Oh, who is doing the school
5 mile walk on the 7th, shall we all walk it together as a team
with your Mums and Dads joining in. It’ll be fun so see
you all there. Under 10’s
first away game of the new season match report Team Captain: Lucci C We played one of the Southside United teams
last season and had won 10-0, this was not the same team!! The
lads were saying between themselves “but they have girls
playing for them”, big mistake chaps as some of these girls
who play these days are as good as the boys and don’t you
forget it.
Man of The Match: Daniel H ( be very proud of this one Daniel as it was so hard to pick anyone who played better than the rest this week, well done you.) Of course this doesn’t mean that
we don’t have to work on any thing else in training on Tuesday,
Alfie and I have a plan………………………………………………….. Under 10’s
first home game of the new season Team Captain: James G First home game of the season on a nice hot
sunny Saturday morning, well we started to play at mid-day because
the Under 12’s were also given a home match before us. FINAL SCORE: HHFC 0 v SHARNBROOK 2 Man of The Match: Lucci C Start of the Season 2006-2007 First off guys welcome to a new season
where we can achieve great things again together. We ended on
a high note last season with the 10-0 win and with luck we can
continue these winning ways again this season. |