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With the coach confined to bed, the team short of training and minutes before departure only 10 players ready to play, the U11’s produced a surprise and moral boosting 2-1 victory against Celtic FC in a league match.
With the usual mad dash to the ground, scooping up boys along the way the team in fact arrived with two substitutes – a rare luxury – and a stand in coach. Little time for a warm-up it was straight into the action with the defence immediately under pressure. Joel Mensah rose to the challenge with two solid saves before the opposing side finally found the back of the net with a fine goal. This felt like familiar territory, but this week the U11’s were altogether a better side and having failed to win a penalty Kaies Kargar made all the running minutes later to equalize. The Dragons were on their way.
The scores stayed level to half time but Eirik Abney took the Dragons into the lead early in the second half with a fine chip over the goalkeeper into the top right hand corner of the net. Kaies was close to scoring a third and was prevented from doing so only by a fine save. But Celtic weren’t done and on the rebound hit the cross-bar, goalie, several defenders and the post before the ball was finally cleared, during one particularly tense moment of play. Minutes later a quite stunning defensive tackle from Eirik prevented a certain goal. With the two substitutes on the pitch the Dragons hung on, kept attacking and thoroughly deserved their win. Well done boys!
Another tough match for the U11’s against the well organized Ruislip Town. The end result was disappointed, a 6-0 loss but this didn’t reflect a gritty first half performance and some enterprising attacking plays, with Kaies Kargar and Harvey Robertson making some promising runs at the opposition, although all foiled by good Ruislip defence.
The Under 11’s are learning about playing against decent teams in difficult conditions. When the Dragons can keep the ball in opposition territory for longer more goals will follow.
Playing at home on a pitch that resembled the Somme, the embryonic U11 side were almost at full strength to face Rusilip Rangers. They opened strongly with Kaies unlucky to miss the goal on an early break. Some ten minutes later Hal Wilkinson left the Rusilip goalie with little chance, as he put the ball into the top right hand corner of the net. Soon after Rusilip equalized and the Dragons were unlucky not to convert some of their attacking chances into more goals – but by this stage they were playing the linesman as well as the opposition – as they fell frequent victims to the off-side rule.
The Dragons continued with the attacking momentum in the second half with a beautiful goal from the useful Kaies – only for it to be disallowed – again being deemed off-side. Rusilip immediately seized the imitative and a couple of defensive errors allowed them to score against the run of play. A fourth own goal put them in a commanding position but Eirik showed his potential with a beautifully placed goal which left everyone hoping for a last minute comeback from the Dragons. It was not to be. The final score 4-2 to Rusilip was frustrating – but a useful lessons for both the defence and the strikers. Another win is surely on the horizon.
Organizational issues still abound with the U11 team. Facing their toughest challenge yet against A.B.C. Foundation only 11 players made it to the ground for the start of the game – and some of them via a circuitous route. Following a well drilled and focussed warm-up the opposition started the game the sharper team and quickly took 2 goals.
Fortunately Abdhul arrived and was quickly substituted onto the pitch, providing some much needed support. Already on the back foot the Dragons sharpened up and battled bravely, but lost another goal by half-time , offering little to test the opposition defence.
A fourth goal shortly after half-time could have demoralized the team but they battled on. The strongest play came in mid-field with Hal, Harvey and Kaies working well together. Abdul was strong when tackling and Yasin came back after injury sporting a plaster the size of a beach towel to play bravely on. Twice the Dragons got close to scoring, only to concede goals immediately the ball was cleared.
The final score of 8-0 was harsh, but probably fair. In the next week the team, manager and coach need to work hard, on and off the pitch, to ensure that the talent in the team gets a chance to shine.
Rusilip Rangers looked altogether a much more organized side as they drilled their boys prior to kick-off. The Dragons got off to a slow start, not helped by having to find half the team in the morning before setting off. For the first ten minutes they were outclassed as Rusilip scored 4 goals in 8 minutes. To add to their difficulties the Dragons were without their usual goal-keeper and missing two of their backs.
Slowly the Dragons pulled themselves together and began to play as a team, found some shape with Harvey, Hal and Kai in mid-field making the running, Hal scoring just before the end of the first half from a volley.
After a motivating half-time talk, the Dragons opened strongly in the second half with the mid-field and strikers running at the opposition when given the ball and scored three more goals (Harvey, Khies (2)) bringing the scores level and Dragons right back into the match. It looked as if Khies had put the Dragons into the lead only for the goal to be disallowed for reasons not immediately obviously to those players not related to the referee.
Rusilip however were not finished and came back strongly towards the end with three more goals for a final result of 7-4.
Had the Dragons been more organized from the start the result could easily have gone the other way. The team has strengths to build on but needs to come together as a team, both on and off the pitch
Andrew
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