16 and Under

Boys Football Youth League

I KNEW this was going to be a tough encounter with three of our midfield players missing and playing against the strongest midfield in this league, especially with the introduction to Ben Greaves to the MacKillop line-up.

The game started evenly, with the Strikers having the best of the opportunities with William Leigh and Ari Wolfl putting Blake Lucas through on three occasions, but was unable to find the back of the net this time.

Xavier Suares also went close to scoring with a fine effort from the edge of the penalty box which grazed the top of the cross-bar, but the old football term “if you don’t take your chances you get punished” was in the back of my mind.

Hugh Forward our goal keeper was struggling to get much distance with his goal kicks because of the strong head wind and the quagmire under foot, but the defence held out to keep the match scoreless at half time.

With only one substitute available, Brad Tweddell and he hadn’t played for over six weeks and was ill, the MacKillop midfield gradually took control and scored through Ryan Fish who finished well, 0-1.

MacKillop quickly scored again, 0-2 whereby I introduced Sam Parrott into midfield to freshen up play, but chances for the Strikers were few and far between and we had lost our shape.

The Strikers still showed moments of brilliance with overlapping runs from both Jack Constantine and Harry Hick, but the defence splitting through balls, which has been our trait of late was missing this day.

The Strikers succumbed to two more late goals to give us a 4-0 thrashing, which was not a true reflection on the overall performance by the Strikers and is a harsh score line for us to swallow.

William Leigh wins My Chooks Player the Match Award, for his superb first half performance alone, it’s good to see him finding some fitness at long last, not many people have the ability to sit one of the best midfielders in the league on their rear end!

The league title may now be over for us, but we will build from this, hopefully the players will have learned from this, I certainly have and I think this will hold us in good stead for the knockout phase of the season.