Heybridge Youth 3 – Earls Colne 1
An early morning. A long drive. A biting wind. Playing top of the table Heybridge after being thumped by Halstead. Such things test our reasoning about why we do these things. Then out of the blue comes a performance to make us proud, and managers, parents and lads all know exactly why we do this – because when we play well we can look so good and our confidence levels rise and we feel more than ordinary.
A sharp wind was whipping the length of the pitch, and our luck was in when Harry won the toss making us face the gale first half. We certainly played better than last week, but we were being pinned in our half. Goal kicks were hardly travelling, and their midfield was snapping up most 50/50 balls. If we did win a ball we quickly gave it to their defence who promptly sent it back into our danger zones. Heybridge sent in a few long range efforts, but Thomas dealt with them all, even those that fizzed off the turf.
We conceded in fine Earls Colne tradition. Diving in, we missed the ball completely, letting in Heybridge, who with one pass cut us open leaving Thomas unguarded and unable to stop the strike.
Half time came, and we had done well to limit them to one. Patrick had been caught on his ankle and came off, and Sam was replaced by Cameron. Within seconds of the restart Cameron had swiped our first shot just wide of the near post. We could all sense that we could get something from this match.
Louis began to dominate the midfield, and we must have had at least 70% of the possession in their half. Luke, Daniel and Harry were working well and James was continuing his run of good form – yet despite this we were not fashioning scoring chances. I think if we had used the prevailing wind, a few more long distance shots would have paid dividends.
Despite our possession, we are still quite capable of shooting ourselves in the foot, and shoot we did. A goal kick from Jake was sent straight back, by us, and then defenders collided allowing Heybridge through to score. Later on another innocuous through ball was missed, turning it into a real chance. This was prodded past Thomas, only to be cleared by George, yet the ball as ever, went to the one player not in blue, and Heybridge had three goals, from not many more chances.
Prior to this James had scored, following good work from Luke and Harry. At the start of the season James would not have been near this chance, and now he uses his speed and strength to create his own opportunities. Some other good moves followed, one stopped by a horrendous offside call, but most by our Arsenal like tendency to want to pass the ball into the net, rather than striking early.
Calum had a good game, particularly when he man marked their striker. Jake was impressive, and - in fact most of the team had a good day, but I felt the man of the match had to go to Louis. He completely bossed the midfield, showing strength and skill throughout – he just needs to find ways of shooting more often.
Well done all – pride is restored!
