Forest Glade Tigers 3 - 6 Southminster



So today our boys had their third friendly/exhibition match against Soutminster and the result was not quite as good as last week for various reasons. We had a larger squad today which meant we had to keep changing the team around frequently to give everyone some ball time. Within this larger squad we had a couple of very week players and the team never really started to gel together and understand where they should play and where their team mates would be. The conditions were pretty bad due to all of the rain and the pitch was a bit of a mud bath.

 

The Southminster team played well, however we are not sure whether they played their A-team against our Tigers and the B-team against our Lions. The reasons I say this is that the Lions won their game something line 9 - 1, and the Tigers lost 6 -3, and when you look at some of the players from Southminster in the Tigers game, there were some big tall lads there that were running circles around some of out little ones.

 

At half time we were holding our own and were actually 2 - 1 up. Joshua was predominantly playing in defence and doing OK. In the second half Joshua replaced Ellis as goal keeper and had some good and bad moments. He all too often wants to kick the ball out when it comes at him rather than throw himself at the ball and pick it up. As a result of this the ball ended up with the Southminster a couple of times resulting in quick goals that arguably they should not have had the chance to score. Joshua could learn a lot from little Ellis's fearless approach as a goal keeper. Having said that Joshua did have a few good saves and he did some very good goal kicks.

Some of our Tigers warming up and getting caked in mud even before the game starts.

Me trying to referee the boys in the first half. The Southminster coach took the second half.

There was some very good play from our boys and girls and as you can see they are starting to spread out on the pitch rather than all chasing the ball.

Second half and Joshua dons his new goal keepers shirt and replaces little Ellis in goal.

 

What is impressive is how all the boys and girls seem to up their game when they play against a different team from our friendly training games. Its as if the competitive spirit comes out and you see a completely different side to a lot of players that you never see in training.

 

My final thought on today's game is, who's bright idea was it to kit our boys out with white football socks and how the hell am I supposed to get these cleaned????? For the sake of £3 out of Sports Direct, I think these might just end up in the bin rather than my washing machine. For our next strip my vote is: Forest Glade ALL BLACKS!!!!

Joshua's football socks after today's very muddy game.