Norwich City Elite vs Moreton Hall Raiders
0 - 1
04 November 2022 · Cambridge & District Colts League<br>U14 Stanley
Away friendly match played on 04 November 2022.
Kicked off at 7:15 AM
0-1
vs Norwich City Elite
Away friendly match
Out first outing against a professional club did NOT disappoint.
Norwich City had expressed an interest in a few Raiders since Chris Munday joined Norwich from Cambridge United. It was his idea to organise a small sided 7 a side game against the Suffolk Elite squad to see how our
boys might fair.
In true form and crazy optimism, I believed this game would be another 4 or 5 nil win for the Raiders, and to be fair it would have been if they kept it 7 a side.
Just before kick or their coach Mark changed the game to 9 a side so he didn’t have boys standing around getting cold. Whilst this was fine in principle it made for a very tight narrow pitch, and helped them massively due to our style of wide attacking football.
Prior to the game I told the boys to “Not respect the Norwich badge” and to play our aggressive way. Clearly Finbo Deeks and Hugo were listening, because watching the game back Finbo was FLYING into tackles and Hugo was fouling a lot! Anyway, our mentality was brilliant and in truth Norwich were never in the game.
The goal came after 10 mins from a lovely move down the right. Barrett won the ball back, laid it off to Deeks who put Everard in down the wing. Everard held up the ball by beating three men until the midfield caught up with him, laid it off to the onrushing Deeks to sweep in a right footed low deflected shot.
We could and should have scored more, but the tiny 7 a side goals made it difficult for us as well as a decent Norwich keeper. Hugo, Taylor and Everard all hit the woodwork but the score remained 1-0.
The feedback from Norwich was overwhelmingly positive and I believe several of the Raiders are going to be asked to join their system in various ways. They couldn’t believe how quickly we turned defence into attack, how well we press and win the ball back and the quality of passing. I’m going to take a small bit of praise of that…. But the majority sits with an unbelievable set of boys who are a joy to coach.
One of the most enjoyable evenings of football I’ve experienced. Thanks for being a part of this journey.
The Raiders remain unbeaten.