U14 Falcons Match Report Falcons VS AFC Whitchurch

Falcons 9 AFC Whitchurch 0

Brown (5) (Livesey)
Khair C (7)
Khair C (24) (Elliott)
Quinn (30) (Preston)
Khair C (37) (Preston)
Pickrell (41) (Livesey)
Brown (46) (Khair C)
Preston (49) (Brown)
Khair C (65)

A big win for the Falcons on a Freezing day at the Rec.

I’ve felt a result like this has been coming for a little while. We’ve been playing well and improving game by
game over the last six games and we’ve been able to play in the style we want for a greater part of each game
too.

Yesterday, on a freezing day at Broom Road, against AFC Whitchurch it all came together nicely.

First Half
In youth football, the first goal is always very important, so starting fast and sharp is essential, so it was nice to see an early goal after just 5 minutes, Alastair playing a lovely ball through for Eadoin to run onto and sweep home across the keeper. (1-0). Our lead doubled just two minutes later, Chris picking the ball up on the left and surging forward to score (2-0). AFC Whitchurch, perhaps because of their long journey from the other side of Reading, had not really had a chance to get in to the game. Moments later, Eadoin ran onto another through ball from our midfield and was scythed down from behind, Penalty. Eadoin stepped up to take it, but put his shot just wide…

This seemed to embolden Whitchurch and they rallied for the next ten minutes or so, having more possession, although they did not have any success getting past our defence, who shut them out very effectively. It was during this period that a key moment in the match occurred. Following a Whitchurch attack, a through ball was cleared only to fall to a Whitchurch striker who tried to chip Archie, who was off his line. Archie managed to track back and make a very tricky save look much easier than it was. An crucial save as a Whitchurch goal at
that stage would have got them right back into the game.

Our third goal came after 24 minutes, from the right this time, Frankie playing a lovely through ball which Chris converted well (3-0).

Falcons were on top now and on the hunt for more goals, we had several chances and the Whitchurch keeper made several very good saves, including a great save from a blistering effort from Ioan. Falcons were pushing forward so much that we started to lose our shape a bit. Ironically this actually makes it harder to score as the game is compressed in the final third. It results in a lot of players in a small area of the pitch, getting in the way of shots and leaving no space to move the ball in. We did get one more goal in this period, Cameron assisting Liam to score his first of the season with a crisp shot from close range (4-0)

4-0HT
Second half

At half time we spoke about the importance of keeping our shape and again to start the second half hard and fast to deny Whitchurch the chance of getting a goal back.

We did just that, Cameron stinging the hands of the goal keeper with a great shot, before providing the assist for Chris’s hat-trick goal 2 minutes later. This goal was my favourite of the day as Chris hit a powerful shot, early, first time from the pass, from the edge of the box into the top right corner. It was a super goal to mark Chris’s first hat-trick, after having scored 2 goals in a game on no less than 8 occasions in his Falcons career,
and in each of the previous 4 games this season. Well done ! (5-0). (There was even some kind of dance routine afterwards - not sure about that lads?? :-D)

Four minutes later, it was great to see Max get on the score sheet with a well-placed shot from an excellent corner from Alastair (6-0). Our first goal from a corner for a while !! For our seventh goal, Chris turned provider for Eadoin to score his second of the game (7-0). Our eighth goal was fitting reward for Cameron who had an excellent game today, a shot rebounding out to Eadoin who slid the ball to his right for Cameron to slot it past the ‘keeper (8-0)

It was at this point that we lost our shape a bit again, with everyone wanting to get a goal. Totally understandable, however, as I mentioned earlier, it makes it harder to score in 11-a-side, plus I wanted that clean sheet!!. This can be clearly seen as in the final quarter of the game we only managed one further goal five minutes before the end. Interestingly, that came from Chris creating his own space with a mazy run down the left before drilling it under the keeper for his 4th goal of the game (9-0)

9-0 FT

That’s our biggest win for almost exactly 2 years (we beat Henley Hurricanes 9-0 in November 2019) and the first time a player has scored 4 in a game since Eadoin scored 5 in the 9-2 victory against Ascot Aces in February 2020, both of these games were U12’s and 9-a-side teams.
In a thumping win like this, the goal scorers get the plaudits, but this was an excellent team performance. Our midfield was very dynamic yesterday. Alastair and Stanley forming a strong central pairing in the first half (and both unlucky not to score themselves), enabling Liam and Marcus to run riot on the wings, I lost count of the number of super balls played in by Marcus. And Liam bagged himself a goal. In the second half Max and Cameron rotated in, Alastair and Max combined to score and Cameron had an excellent second half, with two assists and a goal. Eadoin, playing in his No 10 role picked up two goals and an assist.

I also want to say a few words about our defence today as they delivered another excellent performance. Despite winning by a big margin, Whitchurch were in the game in the first half and at times were dangerous. Our ability to strike forward and create so many chances was built on our ability to keep it very tight at the back. Gabriel, Frankie, Stanley, Ioan, Nathan and Liam all had great games in defence and quickly won the ball back and made intelligent forward runs and passes. They ensured that Archie remained largely untroubled in goal and he himself kept focussed and was able to make an excellent and important save when called on. All this defensive focus and hard work was rewarded with a clean sheet, our second of the season. There have been just 6 clean sheets in the 49 games in our league so far and The Falcons are the only team to have 2 of them, I am delighted with this. Well done all !!

Next up is a trip to California!
COYF!!
Phill