We arrived at the re-arranged venue of Stanley Park, Chippenham for our second league match against Swindon Soccer Skills B (SSS).

All of the boys apart from Charlie Spettigue were available to play.

All of the boys were certainly up for this game today and Tony and myself were looking for the boys to give a great performance continuing on from their narrow defeat against Cirencester A in a friendly last week.

SSS kicked off on a small pitch which had drainage lines covered with sand. During the first few minutes we certainly matched SSS and Andrew had a long range shot which just went past the post. Within 5 minutes we were a goal down, a clever pass to the SSS number 9 who slotted the ball past Jack giving him little chance. The SSS no 9 certainly seemed to be very instrumental in the attacking for and was getting a lot of the ball and had a good shot on goal which was superbly saved by Jack who pushed the ball around for a corner. We decided that Aaron would man to man mark the SSS no 9 and try to eliminate this danger.

With Ollie having a free role in defence he used the ball wisely and we started passing the ball around very nicely linking up play in midfield with Charlie, Roo and James. Kris was making good runs again and was linking up well with Roo. A good shot by Charlie was half blocked by a SSS defender only for the ball to fall to James who calmly slotted the ball home from 5 yards. We deserved to be level. Tony and myself were very pleased the way in which Charlie, Roo and James headed the ball from the SSS keeper and we were winning the battle in midfield.

SSS continued to try and play through their no 9 and tried very hard to shake of Aaron, but Aaron wasn't going to let him get away and made some very well timed hard tackles to thwart him. I'm sure SSS were not used to having their no 9 marked out of the game. When he did get free, Ollie was there to clear up.

We certainly matched SSS in all parts and with some very good play by James down the right hand side of midfield we continued to cause the SSS defenders problems. The score at half time 1-1

During the interval we couldn't praise the boys enough! Everybody was giving 100% and we were certainly matching SSS and could have gone into half time leading. We made one change at half time bringing on Jemil for James and moving Charlie to right midfield.

During the start of the second half SSS made a change and put their no 9 in goal. A strange decision we thought, but this was a credit to Aaron and Ollie who apart from the first few minutes marked him out of the game. SSS certainly put the pressure on and seemed to be camped out in our half for a good 10 minutes. Their efforts were rewarded when unfortunately Jack punched the ball into his own net directly from the corner. Jack and the rest of us were very disappointed but Jack kept his chin up and continued with some fine ball handling and good kicking. Jemil soon got into action and was very instrumental up and down the left wing also making it back to defend when needed. Kris was put through, had a good chance to score but was forced wide with some good defending.

The game was end to end and we were looking for a well deserved equaliser. Roo and Charlie with Jemil and Ollie linking up were passing the ball around superbly. Shots seemed to firing in from all directions but we just could get a goal. A free kick was awarded to SSS and a great save by Jack kept us in the game.

With 12 minutes to go we swopped Kris with Tom. Tom was in the thick of the action straight away and was determined to do well. Within a few minutes of Tom being on a shot by Roo was deflected and the ball landed to Tom just inside the area who turned and slotted the ball into the corner to equalise. A great finish. Tom ran back with his arms wide shouting with all his team mates chasing after him. Brilliant!!

With 5 minutes to go we continued to press forward and Charlie was very unlucking with a superb diving header which just went painfully wide of the top corner. The last few minutes were hectic, It was end to end stuff. In the last minutes we could have won it with a cross shot but Roo just being missed by Charlie at the back post.

The game finished 2-2, but we could and should have won it. We were delighted with the way the boys conducted themselves today against the team that won the league last year. We were also delighted with the way the parents were supporting the boys and shouting encouragement to everyone.

If we continue to perform like this every week we will be a difficult team to beat. Our next match is against table toppers Wootton Bassettt B. For us to get anything from this game we must be at our best again.

Well done to all the players, we decided that EVERYONE was MAN OF THE MATCH.

Credit: Unknown
Last modified on Monday 28th December 2020 at 21:19