7 Boys Football v Gordano

On Tuesday 21 February the year 7 boys travelled across the M5 for their first friendly secondary school football fixture. Having been disappointed with their performance in the recent tournament, the boys were really looking to kick on and show some big improvements in this match. Intentions may have been good but unfortunately the weather had other ideas; the strong gales and driving rain were certainly not going to help good footballing intentions.

The boys were tasked with playing into the driving rain and wind for the first half and it was no surprise at all that they found it difficult. If you looked up into the weather then you had to shut your eyes really and so safe to say that made playing forward a little tricky. Nonetheless the boys did their best; the defence in particular standing out in that early period. Captain Nana GS was once again leading by example and centre back partner Ben Lumoso was showing real signs of improvement, especially in terms of his positional play. On several occasions Nana cut out a dangerous pass and Ben found himself in the right place at the right time to make the vital tackle or head the ball clear. Not only did the two central boys defend well they also had the presence of mind to try to play the ball out to their full backs, knowing that simply clearing it would mean it was likely to come right back at them!

Full backs Liam and Shadrach were showing some real composure when they were on the ball. Considering this was Liam’s first game he was taking the time to play some lovely passes down the right hand side to team mate Hamza Maxamuud who was also making his debut! If improvement was the target then Shadrach was nailing it. A number of times Shadrach showed that he was strong in the tackle and then had the ability to find a pass through to the midfield.

It was really tough in the midfield as the boys spent the majority of the first half on the back foot. Isaac, Jody and Mansur had a lot of defensive work to get through and they didn’t shy away from it. Jody and Mansur ran and ran in the middle of the pitch with Isaac in particular standing out for his athleticism and work rate.

Despite their endeavour the boys did concede two goals in the first half and they were exact replicas of one another which was a little frustrating. The wind was such that Toby was always in search of a short goal kick. On occasions where this wasn’t on Toby was forced to play longer and when he did it was essential that our defenders were positioned in front of the Gordano attackers to stop them pouncing on the wind affected kick. Unfortunately that didn’t happen twice which allowed the Gordano attackers to put the ball into an empty net – you couldn’t help but feel for the boys and for Toby who had kept goal brilliantly during the first half making a number of excellent saves.

The boys were looking forward to getting out for the second half and getting back into the game with the wind behind them. Early on it was clear to see that the conditions being in their favour made it a lot easier to attack. Immediately the midfielders and the wide players started to get on the ball more and cause problems. Ari played a couple of nice passes back inside to his central team mates and ran again to work the left side well. Hamza offered well on the right too and got outside his opposite full back on a number of occasions to get the ball across. Isaac was started to look even more of a threat in midfield and the Gordano boys struggled to cope with his physicality and athleticism. Mansur was enjoying the ball at his feet a lot more and was starting to find his passing range with some perfect weighted little clips – one of which Ari latched onto and fired at the target forcing a good save from the goalkeeper. For their dominance at the start of the second period the boys couldn’t get the ball in the back of the net. Jody had volunteered to play in goal in the second half and his kicking out of hand was almost travelling the entire length of the pitch with the swell behind it. This meant that the boys were able to push up a lot further and this made a big difference.

One person I haven’t mentioned yet is striker Ben Bohin who worked just as hard as anyone else in the first half. It would have been all too easy for him to stand up front and let his team mates carry on battling against the Gordano boys and the conditions but he really dug in for his team mates and defended from the front brilliantly. In the second half he came alive and it soon became clear that he was going to be a threat. He was on the ball a lot more and was starting to use his pace but also mixed his game up by holding the ball well and bringing others into the game. With the ball in good areas far more a goal had to be coming soon. Ben delivered in emphatic style with the most impressive of finishes right into the top corner bringing his team back into the game.

St Kath’s had opportunities to level the game but were just left short at the last and as time wore on they become more and more desperate for their second goal. Gordano really stepped up to the challenge at the end of the second half and worked hard to create attacking chances of their own. They were clinical in attack and took two of their chances to take the game beyond reach of the SK boys.

At the end of the game there were so many positives to take and the score line didn’t really do them justice. They conceded two really unlucky goals and had it not been for a little naivety could have gone in at half time dead level. They created a number of really good scoring chances in the second half and took one of them. Toby kept goal brilliantly for the first half and then handed the duties over to Jody who did a great job as a stand in. The boys also played the second half with 1 less player because it was far too unpleasant for anyone to stand on the side and watch! Taking all of that into consideration I was delighted with the improvement and am really looking forward to watching them continue to get better with every game.

In such an impressive team performance it can be hard to pick out a man of the match but Isaac Adebo really did cover every single inch of the pitch and came off absolutely exhausted having given everything for his team mates. The boys followed suit and so many also had fantastic performance.

Huge congratulations for a vastly improved performance boys.

Mr Cook