U12 Reds Match Reports 2018-19

2nd December, 2018: Crowmarsh Tigers vs Faringdon Town.

Half-time 1-3, Full Time 1-4.

Squad: Sam Teasdale, Oli Coles, Matt Khamkaew Stephen, Jacob Hadland, Harry Goodwin, Haydon Nuckley, Theo Ankacrona, Harvey Godwin, Archie Cardis.

Unfortunately Bailey was unwell and had to withdraw from the squad. 
We started well and Harvey had a shot that just missed the target. We were passing the ball well and creating opportunities. Crowmarsh came back into the game for a small period and we conceded a goal when the ball got through to one of Crowmarsh’s players in the penalty area, which he flicked over our defence to another player who, must have been close to being off-side, who hit it into the top of the net.

However our heads didn’t go down and we continued to play well and create chances; Harvey then crossed from the left, after an interchange of passes with Matt and Harry, and Theo got on the end of it and put the ball in the net with a clean finish. After a good interchange of passes Harvey dribbled through and scored from a narrow angle.

We missed the ball when trying to clear it in our penalty area and Crowmarsh had a shot, to which Sam made a great save. After another good through ball Harvey ran on to it and scored. We made some lovely moves down both flanks with Jacob, Archie, Matt, Theo and Haydon down the right and Oli, Harry, Matt, Theo and Harvey down the left. Half-time 1-3.
We fairly dominated the second half and Harvey got his hat trick with a powerful shot.

Crowmarsh went on all out attack and our midfield were a bit slow in recognising that Crowmarsh had 5 players in attack. We also defended a bit too high up the pitch, which meant we had to rely on last ditch tackles from Oli, Jacob and Matt. Final score 1-4. Well played everybody!

13th January, 2019: Headington Youth vs Faringdon Town.

Half-time 1-2, Full Time 2-3.

Squad: Sam Teasdale, Matt Khamkaew Stephen, Oli Coles, Edward Cale, Archie Cardis, Haydon Nuckley, Theo Ankacrona, Harry Goodwin, Harvey Godwin, Jacob Hadland.

We played Headington Youth, the unbeaten team at the top of league on Sunday. We started okay, but we didn’t really compete, although we still created chances. We then lost a pretty soft goal. We continued to create chances, but we couldn’t quite get shots from Harvey, Harry and Theo on target. We then gave away another soft goal. We improved after that and started to compete and were rewarded with a goal. Archie passed to Theo who scored. Half-time 2-1.

At half-time we talked about winning this game with the chances we’d created and that the wind would be in our favour in the second half and putting the ball between their defence and keeper for Harvey to run onto. In the second half we continued to play the way we had towards the end of the first, so we were much more competitive winning more fifty-fifties and winning more second balls.

Half way through the second half we equalised with Harvey scoring. We were then putting Headington under a lot of pressure and they started to get ragged at the back. Matt then scored with a well taken goal. Matt then got through again, but the ball just ran away from him when he was round their keeper. We created more chances, but Headington started to put us under pressure and Sam made some good saves and the defenders of Oli, Jacob, Edward and Matt made some good tackles and interceptions and held strong.

Archie, Theo and Harry, playing in midfield, helped out the defence. Headington made some chances mostly due to our mistakes, but we held out. Final score 2-3.

It was particularly good to see other players coming across to tackle when one of our players was beaten. That is a hallmark of good teamwork.

We are up to 3rd in the league 1 point behind the leader, which is still Headington. 

27th January – Faringdon Town vs Watlington Town.

Half-time 8-1, Full Time 11-2.

Squad: Sam Teasdale, Oli Coles, Jacob Hadland, Matt Khamkaew Stephen, Theo Ankacrona, Harry Goodwin, Harvey Godwin, Archie Cardis.

Unfortunately Haydon was ill and couldn’t make it, so we were down to 8 players. Watlington’s manager, in a very generous gesture, agreed to play 8 a-side, although he had 13 players. Matt won an important toss, so we started with the very strong wind behind us.

This meant that we were able to pin Watlington in their own half and quite often in their own penalty area. We had a couple of chances, but couldn’t get our shots on target, but inevitably we did score with a free kick just outside the penalty area that Harvey blasted into the net. 

Harvey then got another cutting in from the left. Theo got the next. Harvey scored his hat trick and Harry scored his first goal for the club shooting from the right hand side of the penalty area over the top of their keeper. Harvey then got 3 more in the first half interspersed with a goal from Watlington with a rare venture into our half. Half time 8-1.

The second half was much more difficult playing into the wind and it took us a while to get used to the ball traveling a lot further, so it kept bouncing over our defence, but we ran really hard to get back goal side and clear the ball. We played well in the second half with some good set up play and Harvey scored before Watlington got one back with one of those balls that went over the top of our defence. Harvey proceeded to score 2 more with the last a nice strike from just inside the penalty area that went onto the top left hand corner just before the final whistle. Final score 11-2.

The whole team played well, Sam made some good saves and catches particularly in the second half. He didn’t have much to do in the first. The defenders of Oli and Jacob did well making good tackles and interceptions and distribution. The midfield were very mobile with Matt breaking up play in front of the back two and 3 midfielders in front of him of Archie, Theo and Harry who passed the ball well, got into good positions and helped the defence in the second half and supported Harvey. Harvey had a fantastic game getting 9 goals. 

We had the same ref. for our last two matches and he said his man of those matches was Oli because he never gave up no matter what the situation or score.

We remain 3rd in the league because the two teams above us, Bardwell Youth and Headington Youth, both won.

10th February – Florence Park vs Faringdon Town.

Half-time 0-1, Full Time 1-3.

Squad: Sam Teasdale, Oli Coles, Edward Cale, Jacob Hadland, Matt Khamkaew Stephen, Theo Ankacrona, Haydon Nuckley, Harry Goodwin, Harvey Godwin, Archie Cardis.

We began our match against Florence Park well and it was quite equal in the early stages. We started to get on top and scored around halfway through the first half with a beauty of a goal. Harvey put in a great cross from right of the penalty area and Theo volleyed it in at the far post. A great goal.

We remained on top for the rest of the half and Sam was calm and confident in goal coming out to collect through balls. Half-time 0-1.
We remained on top at the beginning of the second half. We were able to play them off-side a number of times although on a couple of occasions we played them onside by one of our defenders hanging back.

Against the run of play we conceded a goal. A ball down the middle came through to their striker after two of our players air kicked when trying to clear the ball. Harvey then scored at close range. We got a freekick on the edge of the penalty area to the right. Harvey hit an absolute piledriver of a freekick, which their keeper did well to keep out, but it fell to Theo who put it wide of the keeper. Final score 1-3.

We played well as a team and deserved to win. We could have scored more goals.

The final table:
P       W         D          L        Points
Bardwell                  6        6         0           0           18
Faringdon Town     6        4          0           2         12
Summertown          6        3          1           2          10
Headington Youth  6        3          1           2          10
Florence Park         6        1           1           4           4
Crowmarsh Tigers 6        1           1           4          4
Watlington Town   6        1           0           5         3

The players should be very proud of this achievement.