15 February 2019

U15 A

Off the back of a tough loss against Bloxham the team was looking for a win against a very strong Cheltenham side. The team got off to a slow start but quickly picked up the pace and applied a lot of pressure on the midfield. With a couple of great saves from the keeper Josh Khan spirits were high. However a defensive slip up allowed Cheltenham to score just before half time. After half time the team had an explosive start with some great attacking from players such as Matthew Fowler and Tom Jackson. Eventually our efforts were rewarded with a fantastic goal off a short corner scored by Charlie Lloyd. The game ended in a 1-1 draw.

U15 B

We arrived in Cheltenham ready for another game. The pitch there was a lot narrower than any of the other pitches we had played on before, meaning we would not only have to work harder to get the ball into their goal, but we would have to defend harder as well. 

Cheltenham won the toss and elected to start. Their players, experienced with playing on such a narrow pitch, spent most of the game with the ball in our half. They pressured us when we had the ball, making it very difficult to get it into their D. When we did manage to get the ball there, Henry Hooker’s shooting skills put us ahead. This was one of the only times we managed to get any kind of a shot on goal. They had way more chances then we did, but they were unable to capitalise on them until the middle of the second half, when they managed to score an unstoppable goal. The scoreline remained the same for the rest of the game. We were happy that we hadn’t lost, but this game left a lot for us to work on.

Overall, we played well in defence and in attack, but we had a very limited midfield. Without this midfield, they were able to close us down while we were taking sixteens as it was hard for us to get the ball to our strikers. We were also trying to pass/run through defenders instead of passing, and as we often had no passing options, this became our only option. We need to work on using space more, and moving the ball quicker. The final score was 2-5 to Cheltenham.

The player who I think deserves a special mention:
Charles Lykke Dahn – For putting in an incredible amount of effort both in defence and attack.

U16 A

The match started with an unexpected turn of events when attacker Henry Lykke Dahn made a run into the D and got swiped out by the goalie forcing him off for the rest of the match. Soon after that the Cheltenham boys scored a goal which was then quickly equalised by Abingdon. This was then repeated when Cheltenham scored and Abingdon quickly followed them up. With an inspirational half time talk Abingdon then went on to win the second half 2-0. With this being the final match of the half term, the boys will then have a week to rest their bodies before coming back stronger than ever after half term. The final score was 4-2 to Abingdon.

U16 B

After the last win against Bloxham we felt confident to keep our winning streak going, but we didn’t know what we were up against.

In the first half we weren’t marking all of them as they committed lots of people up front, giving them lots of options in the D which meant they scored in the first 5 minutes. But we responded well with a well worked goal scored by Sukrit. We weren’t making tackles quick enough and we were letting them walk around us especially taking down the wing and passing straight to the top of the D where there was tons of space and time for them, which led to their goals. We were given a short corner due to a stick tackle in the D but unfortunately it was disallowed. 

We needed to mark their key players – their wingers and their key midfielders – where they made their leads from and from the 16 not just give it away straight back to them. We were playing with the ball very well but we never had enough support to make our counter attacks worthwhile. And their last goals were created off our 16s with silly mistakes leading to them scoring. So we need to give options off 16s and give more options when attacking.

2nd

Abingdon seconds played at home against a strong Cheltenham 2nds – certainly the strongest team we’ve faced yet. We struggled to take control of the game and conceded two goals in the first half which was a fair reflection of the first half – despite starting to play well in the middle period of the first half Cheltenham certainly posed more of an attacking threat and were more organised, as a whole team, in defence. The second half was a different story – after a change of structure we took the game to them, dictated the tempo, were quicker and more aggressive, we spurned 3 good opportunities before Harry Capon finally scored, and then scored again to make it even. Unfortunately Cheltenham immediately scored a very good goal, their only shot on target in the second half, and held on for a win. The boys showed great character in this game and showed the great potential looking ahead to the next fixtures. The final score was 2-3 to Cheltenham.

1st

Another strong performance from the team, with 2-0 not completely reflecting the performance in a game which could have been higher scoring. Cheltenham played a very high press, often trying to cordon off our wing backs; however, after initially reacting to the pressure well, we began to play out and around the back, and attack with speed and intensity. We were rewarded with two goals from Zamler; in the first half it was from a great deflection on a short corner, and in the second half, from open play. Overall, it’s another encouraging performance, and the team’s ability to adapt and play against a team with varying strategies was certainly shown throughout. With a small rest coming up, we'll return fired up for the rest of the season.

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