Good Experience

From the post-match chatter it was clear not everyone enjoyed our game against the U13 Boys, but I believe it was good experience for you all. I also think it might just make a difference in an upcoming game where we're first to the ball and stronger in the tackle.

Good points first. Our first 10-15 minutes was good and we had good energy. We kept our shape and competed very well for the ball. There were some crunching tackles and good, measured aggression. We even managed to foul them a couple of times, which was what I hoped might happen :-) We tried to play the way we were facing and tried to keep it simple, but this was made much harder by a team that was overall quicker in their anticipation of the ball and their decisions when they had it.

After their first goal was when some of our bad habits started making a re-appearance. We made some poor decisions - passing when we had time to dribble, turning with the ball when we needed a knock-down - and many of their goals came from an inability to clear the ball or anticipate the shot or rebound. None of their goals were very special and on most they came as a direct result of us losing possession too easily, then failing to defend properly. I expected them to score goals, just not quite in the manner they did. Late on in the game we resorted to boot-ball, which was never going to work against a faster, bigger team, but this was understandable given your desire not to give-up any more goals. One final thing was our communication - or lack of it. Did you notice how much they talked too each other?

I hope the boys don't give you much ribbing at school. A rematch is not entirely out of the question, and if we do play I think one of our strategies should be to keep a low profile and learn from our mistakes. So don't whine or make excuses, just focus on what you need to do as an individual to complete with them for 60-minutes, not just here or there.

Remember, the scoreline is irrelevant. Instead, what's important is what you learned about yourself and how you apply that in your next game.