So you thought the Tigers would be a push over ?

Whilst you were busy doing tricks the Tigers kept it simple and scored a goal.   1-0 down and a rude awakening !   Had it not been for a disallowed goal it could have been 2-0.   Laurence and I were not happy !

Thanks to Farzan’s goals you managed to pull it around by half time to get to 2-1.  Then you surged to 5-1 in the second half which is what Laurence and I had hoped would have happened right from the start.   There is still a lot of room for improvement.

Farzan has proved he’s a proper sharpshooter with 8 goals so far this season (4 league, 4 cup).  Jack and Jacob just think of what we can do with you both of you back and scoring as well…

Josh S your first goal this season from open play, I’m hoping to see more goals from you as well as from others in the team.   Unlucky Pranash to have a goal disallowed.

Result – Away Win: 5-1

With all that drama yesterday not really sure where to start the match report.

First a thought for Jacob.  We all wish him well and hope he has a speedy recovery.  Also on the subject of the walking wounded since you all keep asking me about Jack I can report he is starting a course of physio and we shall have to see how well he responds to it.  I’ll keep you all informed of progress for both Jacob and Jack as and when I have more news.

So our first win of the season !!!

2-0 up – a Farzan goal then one from Samuel –  that will teach Oakhill Tigers to set up 3-3-4 against us !

By all rights we should have scored at least another 3 but didn’t.

Then Jacob gets injured and we lose all our momentum and get a bit rattled.  We give away 3 goals … Not forgetting Saul saved a penalty and got a yellow card for time wasting (the tigers manager asked the referee not to put it through which was a nice touch).

Then just as I thought we were going to lose the match Farzan bursts through to score his second goal and we go on to penalties.

Lots of drama – Saul having already got his eye in saved three more and yes a WIN.  Hopefully that cheered Jacob up as we waited for his ambulance which arrived just as the game ended.

We showed a lot of character by coming back to win this game…now we have to get into a winning habit.  So onto next week and the home derby against the Tigers.  A must win game – no complacency allowed – there is plenty of room for improvement on this week’s performance.

Result – Home Win: 3-3 & then 3-2 on Penalties

I know it’s tough playing teams like Garston and Sun Sport.  We have had to face the two of the hardest teams we are likely to play this season.  Let’s reflect on these games and learn from them and keep our heads up.

We have the skills and if we put in the hard work on training ground and reproduce it in our games we will succeed and close the gap with these sorts of teams as well as doing well in the league.

Result – Away Loss: 1-13

A tough match I’m afraid.  From the conversations I had with their managers after the game it became clear we were facing academy players and some who had even been in the Tottenham Youth teams.

Whilst we have a lot to work to do (we are definitely short of fitness and it showed) there were also plenty of positives for us to work on.

I’m afraid out research on next week’s opponents in the Hertfordshire Cup reveals that they are an even better team than Sun Sports White.

We will have to put out a defensive formation to try to avoid conceding goals in the first half at least.

Result – Home Loss: 2-13

1st June saw United playing in the first of four Summer tournaments, the Sun Postal 5-a-side.

We took a squad of 8 players looking to improve on the Q-Final and S-Final places that Athletic and Pumas achieved two years ago.

We were drawn in a qualifying group with Park Street Village, Sun Postal Yellow and Cassiobury Rangers.

With just 10 minutes per game, in the first tie of the event we played out a cagey first 7 or 8 minutes against Sun Postal, before conceding a goal with a couple of minutes to go after losing concentration and allowing our work rate to drop when the draw was looking like the most likely result.

With only four teams in the group, losing the first game left us needing to really win both of our remaining qualification games to stand a change of finishing in the top two and qualifying for the knock-out stages of the cup.

Our second game drew us against Park Street who had won their first game 2 – o against Cassiobury.

We started the game much brighter and seemed to have the lion share of the possession in the first few minutes although another lapse in concentration and work rate allowed Park Street through on goal early on and Park Street could consider themselves mighty unlucky to have not been awarded a penalty when Matt was forced to dive at their players feet.

This seemed to work as a bit of a wake-up call for us and we started to pile on the pressure again and Adam broke the deadlock to put us 1-0 up.

We continued to work the ball around well but another case of not defending as a team meant we then conceded an equaliser before Adam scored again to put us 2-1 up and Ben neatly rounded the keeper to send us 3-1 up.

As seems to have been the way for the latter part of the season we did not close the game down at that point and did concede another goal to finish the game with a 3-2 victory.

The third game saw us up against Cassiobury, who had lost both of their opening games, knowing that we needed to win by at least two goals to guarantee a spot in the cup knock-out stages.

We again started forcefully and whilst it took a little while to come, Ben eventually scored to put us 1 – 0 up and then again to go 2 – 0 up. This was the scoreline we needed but yet again we made lives difficult for ourselves by leaving the game too open allowing Cassiobury to register a goal, reducing the margin to just one goal, with only a minute or so to go.

With the score of that game ending 2 -1 to us, that left us waiting on the result of the Sun Postal v Park Street game, which Sun Postal fortunately ran out winners of to top the group, having won all of their games, with United coming second with 2 wins and a loss.

Finishing second in the group gave us a much tougher draw for the Quarter-Final and we were pitted against Bessingbury Park, a top division side from the Harrow Youth League.

Whilst we battled well, Bessingbury proved to be a much more dynamic team than ourselves with great pace and movement which we struggled to live with. We conceded in the first few minutes and then did well to keep them from scoring again but did not make the most of the few chances we did create to really threaten their place in the semi-final. The final score ended 1-0 to Bessingbury.

Having won 2 and lost 2 games, it was not the most successful of tournaments for us, although a good morning out in the glorious sunshine.

Ben(3) and Adam(2) scored all of our goals, which was probably well deserved as they were probably the two most consistent players today over the matches we played.

*** Aldenham Arrows u9’s WIN the Luton Town FC Hatters Cup ***

8 back to back wins, ending with us beating last years winners in the final. Great team performance by all players. Very proud !

-NB

Not the score line that we would have chosen to go out on as we went down 5-4 away to Whetstone Pumas in our final game of the 2013/2014 season.

Pumas were always going to be fired up for this game as a win would move them out of the bottom two but strictly this is a team that we should have handled with relative ease.

As it was, we started well playing with a strong headwind, hitting the post and crossbar in the first few minutes but very quickly resorted to playing the long ball as it was clear, as with the last time we played them, that we had them for pace up front.

This resulted in an early goal for Keiran and a second for him just 15 minutes into the game.

Unfortunately, even though we had encouraged the boys to play a passing game before the start, they continued to send long balls forwards, passing up the opportunity to retain possession and with it giving up the opportunity to actually control the game. As such, it became a game of attack and counter-attack which Pumas started to get fairly adept at themselves.

Some 20 minutes in Pumas scored a goal of their own on the counter-attack, and while the score stayed at 2 – 1 for a little while, Adam hit back with a goal of his own to make it 3 – 1 with just a few minutes to go until half-time.

Unfortunately, a lack of concentration, and any kind of commitment down our right allowed Pumas to bring the deficit back to within 1 goal within 30 seconds of the re-start. This was a key turning point in the game as we suspect that had we gone in at half time at 3 – 1, with the momentum in our favour, then we probably would have seen the game out.

As it was, with just a one goal lead, the second half was going to be tough now playing into the wind. And so it turned out as we were now unable to retain any form of possession, and Pumas gradually clawed their way back into the game and into a 4 – 3 lead and very much looking the more dangerous side.

Bringing Sammy back off the bench had an immediate impact as he worked well with Keiran as Keiran completed his hat-trick to take the score to 4 – 4.

Again, had we gotten into a rhythm of retaining the ball early on, we could and should have been able to hold the score to take at least one point away from the game but another goal from Pumas, six minutes from the end, sent them into a 5 – 4 lead that we could not come back from.

Overall it was certainly one of our less convincing performances albeit Keiran signed off his season with a tremendous hat-trick and the man-of-the match award.

The Arrows played 2 ‘Friendlies’ this week. We used this as an opportunity to further develop the team and rotate positions in preparation for next season.

First match against Croxley Green ended 2-2. The second match was against Bushey and Oxhey Cougars; this was a bit of a goal fest, final score was 12-0 to the Arrows.

Our penultimate game of the season saw us playing away to Alexandra Park in the league. Having lost 2 – 1 to them at home in a very closely fought contest, this was an opportunity for us to set the record straight.

Both team were understrength today, missing key players and most notably, both teams were missing their first string goalkeepers.

All the more amazing that it turned into a game where neither side seemed to particularly want to test the keepers.

Both sides started brightly, sharing much of the possession but it was Alexandra Park that seemed to carve out the better opportunities in the first half, albeit their strikers seemed to have misplaced their shooting boots as they shot high and wide on several occasions.

The back three were solid in the first half, with James filling in admirably at centre half and both Ben and Barsa seemed to deal well with everything thrown at them. Whilst Keiran, subbing for Matt in goal was not overly tested, his distribution out of goal was excellent and we built a number of attacks from his long clearances.

In mid-field we looked good for the most part, at least when in possession, but we tended to hold back too much when off the ball and that did give Alexandra park the opportunity to keep building attacks.

With neither side really looking to test the keeper, a 0 – 0 half-time score was inevitable.

In the second half, Buddy moved into goal and TJ picked up from where James left off, marshalling the back three and using his injection of pace when required.

The game followed much the same formula as the first although with Keiran up front and Sammy and James attacking down the wings, we did look more menacing in attack. All over the pitch we did still seem to be standing off the ball far too much, but we were stringing together some solid moves when in possession.

When Sammy got brought down on the left wing after turning inside a couple of Alexandra Park players, James stepped up and demonstrated that without a first string keeper, just getting a solid shot on target can make all the difference as he scored from the free-kick.

Having played with not a great amount of passion up to that point, the goal seemed to stir our boys into life and the thought of surrendering the 1 – 0 lead seemed to see them step up their game.

We did have a few hairy moment at 1 – 0 when Alexandra Park flashed a few balls across the face of our goal but the defence again seemed up to the task and Buddy demonstrated safe hands whenever called on.

Both Jake and Barsa picked up knocks but continued to battle on and we were unfortunate not to double our lead a few minutes from the end when Sammy laid a great ball across the face of the goal but just inches outside of James’ reach at the far post.

At the final whistle the score remained 1 – 0, giving us back-to-back wins as we prepare for our last game of the season.

Notable performances from both of the boys who filled in at centre-half today, James and TJ, as well as to Ben and Barsa who secured their second clean sheet of the week.

Captain’s armband was awarded to Buddy for stepping up to take on goalkeeping duties for the second half and for subsequently ensuring that he didn’t make the management team look foolish for doing so ;0)