A mild morning, with heavy dew on the long grass of a badly marked pitch, was a challenge facing all teams.
William Ransom faced Our Lady in the first match of the morning. Both teams made an enthusiastic start but took most of the first half to settle to their new positions and look for passes without getting in each other’s way. A fantastic cross into the box by Leighton saw Craig score the first goal just before half time. The second half saw William Ransom attack the opposition’s goal straight away. Louix made a great save when their forwards made a quick break away and Charlie was quick to help in defence making several good clearances as Our Lady found attacking form. The final score was 1-0 to William Ransom.
With three games off to lose momentum, the boys made a slow start to their second game against Weston. Louix made an early save and a cross from Leighton found Craig’s head but the angle was not quite right. Weston, a team who looked used to playing together broke through the defence and scored just before half time. Heads went down for the last minute of the half but the boys came back determined to equalise after half time and Leighton took the ball round the defence to score. A couple more good attempts by William Ransom were foiled by the Weston keeper who kept coming out to block the ball so the game ended in a 1-1 draw.
The third game after a three game rest whilst consuming bacon rolls, was against Offley! William Ransom obviously needed ‘feeding’ as they were soon finding their passes and Charlie scored an early goal after the goal keeper failed to clear the ball after two earlier attempts. Craig nearly scored when the Offley keeper knocked away a shot on goal ; at last we were looking to attack the loose ball in the goal area! A minute later Craig was in a good position to find a gap in the defence for a shot and a second goal was scored, however a quick come back from Offley with an unstoppable shot into the bottom right hand corner caught our defence unaware. After half time William Ransom kept the ball in their half for the majority of the game with Oliver continuing to work extremely hard. Unable to convert a free kick and a few missed shots meant that the game ended with a 2-1 win.
The last game was played in a fine drizzle against Mary Exton where the boys met many of their out of school football team mates. The boys seemed a little less motivated playing against their friends and the two teams were quite evenly matched. Tyler and Ben continued to defend well and so the game resulted in a 0-0 draw.
Well done boys, two wins and two draws, a great start to the season and a ‘warm up’ in preparation for our first league game away at St. Ippolyts on Tuesday. Many thanks also to parents and staff that supported the boys .
Early season A-Team- Leighton (Captain) Louix (GK) Charlie, Tyler, Ben, Craig, Oliver and reserves Edward and Joseph. .