Match Report

Signet United 9 - 1 Dunton Dynamos

U11 League - 10th February 2008

On paper, this looked to be one of the few games we stood any chance of getting anything from. Signet had been struggling in the League all season and had only managed one win all season - they beat us 1-0 earlier in the campaign. We therefore expected this to be a tight game.

As it turned out however, this wasn't to be and the Dynamos were once again soundly beaten. With Liam still out with a broken foot, James once again took over in goal. All other squad members were available for selection.

With the relative success of the sweeper set-up adopted for the last game (with ten players against the League leaders) we once again lined-up in the 5-3-2 formation. Cameron and Luke were both on the sub's bench for the first-half with Jack, Harry, Billy, Dave and Sonny across the back, Ben, George and Calum across the midfield and Ethan and Jordan up-front.

The match itself was played on a bright morning in mid-February. The pitch was absolutely enormous, in length if not width with full-sized goals (not the youth-size goals we're used to). It was also firm under foot following the overnight frost. The morning sun was low in the sky making the conditions difficult, especially for goalkeepers. Dunton won the toss and elected to kick-off.

Straight from the kick-off, Signet were on the attack. Huge gaps were appearing in midfield as we struggled to cope with the size of the pitch. Signet scored three quick goals in the first fifteen minutes and knocked the stuffing out of our battling side. At this point, out stand-in goalkeeper had a bit of a "senior moment" and decided he wasn't going to play in goal anymore. Being a goalkeeper is one of the most difficult positions as you can feel ultimately responsible for each goal conceded. Luckily, James got his head together quickly and was available for selection in the second-half.

This development obviously unsettled the Dynamos team and they were required to quickly reorganise. Jordan took over in goal with Cameron moving to left-back. Sonny moved into midfield. We conceded one more goal before half-time to leave us a mountain to climb in the second-half.

The decision was therefore taken to reorganise the team for the second-half. We reverted to a flat back-four comprising Jack, Harry, James and Cameron with Dave, Ben, Calum and Sonny in midfield. Luke and Ethan joined forces up-front.

The team looked slightly more comfortable in this formation as they were able to have more of an influence on the midfield battle. Signet scored a fifth goal before Dunton immediately replied with a well worked goal finished in style by Dave. This was only our second goal in the league campaign this season and was greeted with an enormous cheer from the travelling supporters!

As the game developed, the Dunton side tired as they were having to chase the game. Gaps opened in defense as players pushed forward in search of more goals. Billy came on up-front and was an absolute revelation. His speed and movement were very impressive and he was causing the Signet side all sorts of problems.

Then, about fifteen minutes into the second-half, Billy was clean through on goal following an excellent through-ball from Ben. As he raced through on goal he was clearly brought down by the chasing defender. He was hurt in the incident and needed attention, but worse was to follow: there was an altercation between one of the Dunton players' parents and the referee / linesman. The point was raised that as the defender was the last man, he should be cautioned at the very least (as happened to one of our players earlier in the season). The referee didn't see it this way and just gave a free-kick to Dunton. Unfortunately, the parent in question took exception to this and left the pitch along with his son. Once again, the squad had to be shuffled to accommodate the gap created. We lost concentration at this point and conceded a few more late goals to finish on the wrong end of a 9-1 score-line.

Man of the match today was Billy who was absolutely fantastic, particularly when he came on up-front in the second-half. His sheer speed was too much for the Signet side and had he started in that position, we would have no-doubt scored a few more goals. Harry also played well in defense and joined the midfield to good effect in the second half as did Sonny who looks much better suited to a role on the left-side of midfield.

Jordan has agreed to remain in goal until Liam is fully recovered from his broken leg. He played with an air of authority in goal and confidently came to collect many Signet crosses to snuff out attacks. With his excellent kicking ability and confidence we're sure he'll do really well in our next few games.

We didn't make it easy for ourselves this week but have none-the-less learnt more valuable lessons. We'll obviously use the remainder of the season to develop our football ready for next season in a lower league (as we're sure to be relegated). We've learnt that Billy (whilst a very good defender) is clearly better suited to spearheading our attack and that Harry and Sonny are best deployed in a conventional four-man midfield. Our trials with the sweeper system haven't worked as well as expected - we'll therefore stick with a conventional 4-4-2 from now on.

Our thanks go to the Signet side for a good game. We clearly had difficulty getting used to their large pitch and weren't able to adjust quickly enough to the setbacks we encountered during the game. On the day, we were soundly beaten - let's hope we can put on a better show in our final encounter with them later in the season!