And it will only get tougher

Game no. 2 – another away fixture!

This would turn out to be tougher and more physical than the opening game of the season but as I have said before it is a place we wanted to be.

The boys are very confident at the moment and fear no one.  Training on Saturday all looked sharp especially Jamie, in great form right now and carried this into the game – well done Jamie.

Kick off and Aidan straight to work making a nuisance of himself and going close twice early on. 

Lawford are a very good side, big lads, fast and would be hard for the defence to cope with, 9 mins on the watch and Cailan made a terrific save – nice one Cailan!

Aidan had a through ball to chase (only one winner there then) and 1 on 1 with the keeper and with 12:58 on the stopwatch it was 1-0.  Two minutes later again Aidan was involved, this time from a throw in, he launched it into the box a neat flick on and Liam headed home to make it 2-0.  We were certainly having the better of play.  Lewis was having a great game at the back, one of my favourite boys, very quiet but very fast, very safe.

A few nasty challenges started to creep into the game, Lewis on the rough end of one such being studded from behind leaving him with a 6” graze calf to ankle.  So about 5 mins left in the first half, Lewis got some treatment.  With him off the pitch this unsettled us a bit and Cailan again came to the rescue, making a world class save with 2 mins left – well done K.

So half time 2-0 – tough half.

Again we knew they would come at us and we felt the next goal would be the important one, so we had to be strong but only 2 mins in and a wicked deflection took the ball past Ryan – no chance with that so move on.  However, this did fire Lawford up and I could go on about some of the touch line comments from both their parents and coaches but I wont - enough said. So glad we have a manager like John!

Anyway back to the game, James got the ball in our half and was off, although an attempt to hack him down only brought him to his knees, he kept going, hurdling another challenge and beating two other players – he put the ball in the net to make it 3-1 a stunning individual goal, quite brilliant – nice one James!

Tough games call for tough boys and Lewis despite his injury came back on up FRONT, the measure of his ability to play in most positions – read on!

A ball over the top for the strikers to chase, their keeper committed himself and sprinted from the box to head the ball clear but the ever sharp Jamie nicked it SHOOT!! But he put in a perfect unselfish cross and Lewis cool as you like headed it home.  Lewis is a gem, a lovely boy and deserved Man of the Match today, very very well done Lewis 4-1.

Tye came off early in the second half – now he is a player that makes a massive impact on the team.  So we were glad to get him back in the game to steady things – very well played today another tough lad.

8 mins left and Jamie put a cross into the danger area only for it to be cleared.  Now I’ve always said to the boys if it sits right hit it, have a go but from 30 yds? Well that’s exactly what Lee did an absolute screamer 5-1 shot Lee!

The game had got a bit scrappy and with about 5 to go and a penalty conceded gave them a goal.

So final score 5-2.  Their coach did shake my hand at the end of the game and told me we were lucky, I had to agree - lucky we did not score more goals.  On another day Aidan could have had 2-3 more and Liam also could have had a couple more.  Luck? Trust me luck did not play any part in this game.  Fantastic team effort today from the boys.

As always train hard and work hard – keep believing in yourselves.

Fabio