Denton Town 2 Heyside Clarets 7 (U12's)

You know girls, one thing I've learnt coaching the 5-8 yr. olds, is that they don't communicate at that age, and often tackle their own players - guess what some of you were doing today?

It's a shame, because if we had been more of a team, we could of got something out of today's game, and Heyside are one of the favourites in this league. If you take into account the 3 or 4 soft goals we gave away, and the two well worked chances that we missed, we definitely could of gone home with a least a point. Even Heyside's manager said that they didn't deserve to beat us by 5 goals.

Before the game I pulled Teah to one side and said, now that you're in midfield, if you see an opportunity, shoot. She did, and hey presto a goal! I keep saying it, the more shots you take the better you become at it, and the more goals you will score - its a very small pitch, and the ball runs quickly, so GO 4 IT!

There were moments in the match where you did get it together, and you put Heyside under some pressure with good passing, good movement, and knowing your positions. Trick is, to get you to do it for the whole 40 mins. Well taken goals by Teah and Kendall, who was unlucky not to bag another couple. The signs are there girls, YOU CAN DO IT! So you lost today to one of the best teams in the league - get over it, learn from it, and put everything into Amy's training sessions - she is level 2 now, and as learnt a lot from some highly qualified coaches, one being Nigel Gleghorn who used to play for Manchester City a few years back.

Player of the match was Kay again, who ran her heart out, and week in week out causes all sorts of problems for our opponents. Best player for them as voted for by you, was the no. 9. The ref, Kattrina King didn't have a great game, so I gave her 7. Some parents thought she was biased, but I honestly think she is just learning her trade at the moment, and tried to make honest decisions, even though quite a few were wrong. The goals were scored: -

12 mins 0-1
13 mins 0-2
16 mins 1-2 Teah
17 mins 1-3
half time
22 mins 1-4
26 mins 2-4 Kendall
31 mins 2-5
37 mins 2-6
38 mins 2-7

Conceding 3 goals in the last nine minutes tells me either you let your heads go down, or you need to up your fitness - I think it is the fitness, because you all tried your hardest right until full-time. So I know what Amy will be concentrating on.

One last thing, I've uploaded the mini videos I took onto Youtube - just follow the link on the blogger. Not the best quality, but I blame that on Youtube as the vids., looked ok on my pc before I uploaded them. See if you can spot yourself.

Nigel.