Earls Barton U12 vs Weekley Rovers U12’s Samurai
League Game – Match 8
Team: Benjamin Streeton, Adam Van Zolen, Joseph Kearsley, Robert Murray, Jake Morrisey (C), Alec Lovering, Jack Sutton, Cameron Duff, Harrison Thompson
Subs: Joe Halton, Sam Bayliss, Oliver Trembecki, Kai Demerel
After a training spent developing over and under lapping, the lads took to the field ready to put some quite advanced tactical work in practice.
From the off the guys attempted to make it work, and the rewards started to come early with several chances created thanks to the movement of the guys out wide and some intelligent use of the ball.
The conditions were tricky – the heavy rain leaving the pitch slippy and heavy under foot – judging the weight of a pass was made all the harder due to this so credit to the boys for implementing Kirk’s instructions.
The message that we needed to build attacks from the back was never more evident than with Benjamin – his distribution at times was outstanding today, the use of his throw really adding a new dimension to building quick attacks.
Harrison kept on troubling the keeper , finding himself in space but the Samurai’s keeper, the bar and the conditions all put up a heck of a challenge and the goal just would not come.
A shuffle of the cards saw Jack go upfront and all of the hard work that Harrison had put in to get the opposition defence on the back foot paid off immediately as a Jack/Cam goal was scored – the “which hand is the tissue in test” (we don’t need Sky Sports third eye camera coverage at Barton!) decided that it was Jacks goal to claim.
After the first goal, Barton never looked back and started to race away with the game, ending 3-0 at half time. The lads really built on a strong first half showing and took the game to Samurai’s in the second half, some of the interplay and movement was outstanding at times and it’s fair to say that the Green Army had control of the game.
Jack wrapped in his fourth goal to cap a fantastic individual performance. Kai’s introduction allowed us to see a new side to his game – Bob amongst others has been singing his praises for Kai’s CB performance for his school and so it was that he got to show us what he can do in a position he’d never played before – it has to be said he played really well, his reading if the game was second to none and he controlled things well form the back.
Old habits die hard however and a mistake in the middle of the park saw Samurais break and get a goal back in a rare foray into the Barton half – it has to be said they deserved the goal however as they never stopped trying to apply themselves to the game.
Whilst the result today was fantastic, it was really about the performance and in particular putting the training drills into practice and it is massively encouraging that the guys were able to do this, if we can keep building on this then the team will go from strength to strength – well done to all of the players for their application.
A really tough Man of the Match vote this week – Jake, Jack and Sam all received votes but the winner – just – was Cam. An excellent performance, he and Jack really have an understanding and the press, play, pass attitude that Cam has adopted these last few weeks saw him earn the MoM award today – his levels of effort matched to those excellent feet and football intelligence saw him edge out the other nominees – well done Cam, great performance.
So it is that Barton now sit at the top of the division, to points clear of Wellingborough having played a game more – we’ll be there for a while as its County cup games next week so let’s see if we can continue to move forward tactically and keep the positive results coming.
Result: Earls Barton 7 – 1 Weekley Rovers Samurai
Scorers: Jack Sutton x 4, Joe Halton, Harrison Thompson, Cam Duff
Man of the Match: Cam Duff