U14s Hawks vs Writtle Minors

Date	Home team	Score	Away team	Competition
1 Feb 2009	Writtle Minors	2-4	U14s Hawks	League Cup

Match report

On a day that was Arctic like due to the cold and wind, a good football match was what was required to warm you up. The boys didn't disappoint, but they put us all through the mill to begin with. This was the semi final second leg in the League Cup and they went into the game with a 4-2 advantage from the first leg ; this hadn't felt like enough and so it proved in the first half.

The Hawks struggled to impose theirselves on the game and get the ball down on the ground to play football. They were often caught out of position and despite the wind being against us in the first half we huffed and puffed - we hit the woodwork twice and then in a period of 5 minutes the complexion of the game changed. A penalty was awarded to Writtle which they coolly put away and 2 minutes later they had a second. Game on , 4-4 on aggregate, and everything to play for. The half time whistle couldn't come quick enough to allow the team and coach to regroup.

This was exactly what they did however ; 3 minutes in a fortunate goal (or was it an own goal ?!) from Dan restored a slender advantage, but most importantly it galvanised the whole team into action. A couple of substitutions had been made and that definetly gave us something different and a cutting edge but most importantly created some momentum. The boys kept the ball on the ground and from then on really started to play some great football. Charlie and Aaron linked up really well on the left and Ellis and Harrison created some great link play to Ant on the right. Harry T had come on and added some steel to the midfield and played a strong role protecting his back 4 and GK, all of whom had a good second half. Three more goals came from Charlie, Harrison and Ant and the boys had done the job.

There was real joy at the end for the whole squad, everyone of whom had made a real impact today. The families were very proud of everyone. Roll on the final !

Squad - Robert, Jamie, Alex, Dan, George, Harry A, Michael, Harry T, Ellis, Lewis, Harrison, Charlie, Aaron and Ant.

With thanks to our sponsor - Taylor Viney and Marlow (thank you for buying so many coffees !) The score was 4-2.