Match Report - WITHDEAN YOUTH WHITE U15 - 04 Sep 2022

With the first game of the season finally upon us.... We welcome Fabrice and his Withdean Youth White squad.

We had a few firsts:

Changing Rooms

Music Playlist

Car Park

Warm Up Tops

Pink Bibs

and most importantly..... The Pink Wig :)

Who would be first to wear it tho? That was the big question..... Owen Draper TODAY'S CAPTAIN won the honours.

With some banging tunes in the background, we had a few trophies to be presented:

Club Merit Award: Oliver Bamberough

Players Player: AIden Powell

Managers Player: Aidan Hillen

Now, back to the game... Warm up was great. Loads of effort and intensity was on show and we got ourselves up for the kick off which we can be accused of not doing so well in the past.

With the opponents only turning up with 10 players, it can be seen as an easier game but we have to prepare ourselves as we would if it was versus 11. And we did.

Right from the word go, maybe because the camera and tripod was set up, we hit the ground running . Chasing the ball down and rushing in the right areas but always calm and composed. Even if we were a little too composed at time, not hitting passes hard enough / playing no look passes unnecessarily, we always did the recovery work well.

What was great to see was the quality of the support, positivity and encouragement from the sidelines.... Especially when we were out of possession as I think this made us fight harder to recover the ball

Jack H getting the first goal really settled the nerves and Harvey being on point with positioning and distribution really helped us gain control of the the game.

We attempted more shots in this game than we did for most of pre season.... Remember, if you don't shoot....... You don't score!!!

Getting in to the changing rooms at half time and the only constructive point to make is that we were only 1-0 up. It can create nerves if the game is not out of sight when you dominate so much of the game.

We came out after the break and completely hit new levels. Hard work, effort levels, intensity, energy, quality on the ball and finishing.... All different class.

The character we showed when we conceded after going 3-0 up was also brilliant. I think last season we may have let it get to us but we stuck together and pushed on to bag another 7 without conceding.

I cannot name all the great stuff but a shout out to Oscar and Tyler that were superb today and of course, A MASSIVE WELL PLAYED TO OUR MOM...... Rio. 2 goals, assists, trickery and a great attitude. Well done all