Post by bluephysio on Aug 20, 2011 12:00:23 GMT 1
The reserves played their first competitive game of the new season away to a much-changed Kirkley team and sadly returned with a 1-0 defeat. We arrived at the ground with a very young team, which contained five 16 year olds, but every one of them and the rest of the lads involved gave a very spirited and encouraging display and were extremely unlucky not to have gained even a point, which, on reflection of the game itself, they more than deserved. In charge of the team were Steve Eastaugh and Karl Fox aided by new management recruit Dave Harty. This was probably Steve’s last game in full charge of the reserves before he hands over to new managers Laurence York and Dave Harty full time. Yorkie incidentally was camped in a field somewhere enjoying a music festival!!
As usual pre match manager Eastaugh did his up most to instil a sense of confidence in the lads and let them know that they were in the team on merit and that this could be the start of a good career at Wroxham Fc. This married to some sound words of technical advice from the very experienced Karl Fox it did feel in the dressing room that this bunch of uncut diamonds could have great potential and give the youth progression that so many football clubs will have to follow in the future. The game itself did show a fair bit of quality from both sides with Kirkley obviously also giving a large number of their younger players runs in the reserves this year. I think it would be fair to say that we definitely shaded the first half with Ashley Mitchell and Luke Thacker both giving the home side defence a nervous time with their pace and direct style. Ashley in particular was a real threat and on quite a few occasions managed to gain us goal-threatening positions but sadly the final quality in the box was missing. We also were gaining the upper hand in the midfield area with captain Jordan Southgate and Sam Harty controlling that important midfield zone for long periods and on many occasions getting our two very young but equally impressive full backs Ben Church and Danny Rust into good attacking positions with quality passes. Slightly against the run of play Kirkley scored in the first half with one of their players getting behind our rather flat-footed defence and Cooley slotting home. Bit of a shame really as our two young centre halves played well all evening with Rio Starkings particularly showing the quality defending and ball winning skills which he obviously processes in great abundance. To credit the lads the goal didn’t dent their confidence and they still carried on getting the ball down and playing the right way but it was clear that we needed to show a bit more composure in the final third if we were to salvage anything from the game. Half time came and another bit of encouragement form the management and points on which the lads could improve but on the whole both Steve, Karl and Dave just reiterated the work ethic and told the lads to keep on plugging away. So out for the second half and it went pretty much the way of the first with both teams committed and playing some nice football but neither really having that cutting edge up front to convert their chances. So the game petered out for a 1-0 win to Kirkley
Loads of positives from this game. Although we lost it certainly was not deserved and I don’t think anyone in the ground would have denied the lads were deserving of a point at the very least. Some very impressive individual performances with Ashley Mitchell looking more and more impressive every game and Ben Church showed great composure in defence and got forward on numerous occasions to back up our attack. But performance of the evening in my opinion was from 16-year-old Luke Thacker. His goal attacking ability is very obvious but he is also hard running and shows great upper body strength for a young lad, which is so, needed for a striker in sometimes-lone positions. If Luke has a bit of a weakness it is that may be he tries a little to hard too make things instantly happen instead of may be just looking after the ball but I absolutely positive he will learn this in years to come and develop into a cracking forward. So next up is St Andrews lets hope we can build on this performance and welcome the new management in with a win.
As usual pre match manager Eastaugh did his up most to instil a sense of confidence in the lads and let them know that they were in the team on merit and that this could be the start of a good career at Wroxham Fc. This married to some sound words of technical advice from the very experienced Karl Fox it did feel in the dressing room that this bunch of uncut diamonds could have great potential and give the youth progression that so many football clubs will have to follow in the future. The game itself did show a fair bit of quality from both sides with Kirkley obviously also giving a large number of their younger players runs in the reserves this year. I think it would be fair to say that we definitely shaded the first half with Ashley Mitchell and Luke Thacker both giving the home side defence a nervous time with their pace and direct style. Ashley in particular was a real threat and on quite a few occasions managed to gain us goal-threatening positions but sadly the final quality in the box was missing. We also were gaining the upper hand in the midfield area with captain Jordan Southgate and Sam Harty controlling that important midfield zone for long periods and on many occasions getting our two very young but equally impressive full backs Ben Church and Danny Rust into good attacking positions with quality passes. Slightly against the run of play Kirkley scored in the first half with one of their players getting behind our rather flat-footed defence and Cooley slotting home. Bit of a shame really as our two young centre halves played well all evening with Rio Starkings particularly showing the quality defending and ball winning skills which he obviously processes in great abundance. To credit the lads the goal didn’t dent their confidence and they still carried on getting the ball down and playing the right way but it was clear that we needed to show a bit more composure in the final third if we were to salvage anything from the game. Half time came and another bit of encouragement form the management and points on which the lads could improve but on the whole both Steve, Karl and Dave just reiterated the work ethic and told the lads to keep on plugging away. So out for the second half and it went pretty much the way of the first with both teams committed and playing some nice football but neither really having that cutting edge up front to convert their chances. So the game petered out for a 1-0 win to Kirkley
Loads of positives from this game. Although we lost it certainly was not deserved and I don’t think anyone in the ground would have denied the lads were deserving of a point at the very least. Some very impressive individual performances with Ashley Mitchell looking more and more impressive every game and Ben Church showed great composure in defence and got forward on numerous occasions to back up our attack. But performance of the evening in my opinion was from 16-year-old Luke Thacker. His goal attacking ability is very obvious but he is also hard running and shows great upper body strength for a young lad, which is so, needed for a striker in sometimes-lone positions. If Luke has a bit of a weakness it is that may be he tries a little to hard too make things instantly happen instead of may be just looking after the ball but I absolutely positive he will learn this in years to come and develop into a cracking forward. So next up is St Andrews lets hope we can build on this performance and welcome the new management in with a win.
