Boothstown Bulldogs vs Middleton Colts Red
6 - 5
06 October 2019 · Heywood Sports Village Mini Soccer League<br>U7A Champions League
Home league match played on 06 October 2019.
Kicked off at 12:00 PM
6-5
vs Middleton Colts Red
Home league match
Bulldogs went into this match unbeaten and high on confidence, but with Freddie and Tom missing and new boy Brody lacking experience, the boys relied heavily on a bare 5 of Aidan, Tommy, Liam, Will and Tyler.
The start was a little shaky in comparison to previous week's with it taking leading scorer Will 9 mins to score from a penalty. But he took his chance well and took Bulldogs into an early lead. However just one minute later and Middleton walked through all 4 outfield players to reply with their own strike.
Liam and Will combined to get Bulldogs second going in 2-1 up end of the first third. But the lead again was short lived with the opposition scoring first one minute into second period. Which could have been worse had they not put a penalty wide.
The back and forth game continued with Will bagging his second on 18min and Aidan making some first class saves. Middleton scoring in 21st min and then another Will goal on 27 minutes to give us the slightest of edges at the end of the second period. Some strong tackles from Tommy and another couple of good saves from Aidan kept us in it, but the boys needed to change something to secure the win.
However the boys looked a little weak and nowhere near as threatening as usual coming back on, and Middleton exploited mistakes and uncharacteristic laziness to score two goals in quick succession. Brody came on for the final 15 for Tyler, however looked lost while still running his socks off for 15, unfortunately for him this was as much as he got involved as the game began to hot up in the final 15 min.
A number of shots throughout the game should have had us well ahead from Tyler, Liam and Will, hitting the target or just wide until Will came good and got two class goals within the final 5 minutes to take Bulldogs back into the lead and end the game on a win albeit by the slimmest of margins.
A slight scare for the boys and an eye opener that they need to work hard together to continue winning. Some poor decisions and miscommunication caused goals we could have avoided. Although an inexperienced and inconsistent referee gifted the Colts some influencing decisions.
One to learn from as we move on to next week still undefeated but a change of tactics and underwear required after today.