U10s rise to the challenge

The squad was once again missing players through injury, illness and unavailability but welcomed back Charlie D and Nathan B who missed last week's trip to Chesham Athletic and manager Lee also gave a debut to new signing Nelson who had impressed in recent training sessions.

Playing games of six a side meant the squad was split into two teams of 7 giving both teams the rare luxury of a sub each. Team 1 was managed by Lee and consisted of Oliver F, Nathan B, Aqib Z, Elliott B, Josh H, Josh C and Andrew C. Team 2 was managed by Helder and consisted of Toby C, Jacob O, Charlie D, Harry G, Kaelin S, Jack R and Nelson.

The first set of games saw a narrow victory from Team 1 thanks in part to a goal from Andrew C but mainly thanks to a fantastic match winning performance in goal from Oliver F who made some key saves in the second half when Downley looked like drawing level. This really was one of those games where having a confident and in-form goalkeeper made the difference between a positive result and a negative result.

Team 2's first game was equally as close and honours were even at the end of the game with Harry G scoring our goal.

The second set of games must have been fantastic games for the neutral. Team 1 were held by their opposition in an end to end game which could have gone either way and saw Josh H and Elliott B on the scoresheet for us whilst Team 2 seemed down and out at half time of their game before second half goals from Harry G, Kaelin S and Charlie D saw parity restored. Such was the impressiveness of team 2's second half performance that Helder saw fit to give all 7 players the man of the match award!

In his usual post match interview with himself manager Lee commented - "if you had offered me this set of results at the start of the morning I would have snapped your hand off. It was a daunting prospect taking on the best team in the division but we went toe to toe with them in all areas of the pitch and showed what a good squad we have become. We are looking solid in all areas of the pitch, our two novice goalkeepers are improving with every match, we are becoming much more disciplined defensively and some of our quick passing football when in the opposition's half is fantastic for a team of 9/10 year olds. I think keeping more or less the same two teams within the squad has helped as these teams have now gelled and are starting to understand each other's games. I keep looking for an opportunity to mix the teams up but I am reluctant to do so as I don't want to upset the balance of the teams and undo all of the great work we have done so far this season. I told the boys after the games this morning that this was the best performance since we started as a squad in July 2011 and I stand by that comment. Downley had some really good players within their ranks but at no point did we let those players take hold of the games which their ability suggested they were more than capable of doing. We now have three games to play before the Christmas break and we can go into that break extremely pleased with our half season's progress if we perform as we have done today."

The U10s travel to Beaconsfield Holtspur on Sunday in what is their final away game before Christmas