Improving Stradbroke U14's Unlucky At Home

Today Stradbroke U14's played tough top team Stowmarket U14's at home, we hadn't played Stowmarket last season as team they were in the top divsion of the 2 divisions in the league so we knew it was gonna be a very competitive match.

Stradbroke controlled and dominated the majority of the first half. They defended well for the first 5 mins as Stowmarket tried to get on the attack early on, but Stradbroke defended well and worked the play out and away from any possible danger. As the game developed Stradbroke used this control to their advantage with James opening the scoring with a fabulous goal. From there Stradbroke pretty much controlled the game but couldn't quite convert their quality play into more goals despite some great attempts and attacking moves. Against the run of play Stowmarket took a good counter attack opportunity and managed to draw level. Just before half time whistle again against the run of play a fantastic trigger shot from just into the final third by a Stowmarket player lead to the away team narrowly in the lead with the second half all to play for.

Stradbroke started well in the second half but once again Stowmarket caught us on the counter to make it 3-1. For Stradbroke today the difference in the score came from theory defending for corners, conceding 2 goals from set pieces. The first did involve some pushing in the box and a possible off side from a Stowmarket player coming back from inside the goal to tap it to the scorer, it was a difficult one to judge by the lines person and ref. Stradbroke were ready to fight on though and with a superb goal kick from Jude, straight through to Jai, Jai managed to run it in to the box and score. Then more corners to the opposition came, 2 goals both with lots of pushing in the box, but both given. At this point having played a fabulous game a few injuries crept in and several subs were needed to manage the energy levels which did disrupt Stradbroke’s flow. Stowmarket started to put pressure on to see the game out and several hard worked attacks led to a fabulous series of saves from Jude and some panicky clearances from our defence. Just before the final whistle Stowmarket were able to breech us again to see the game finish 7-2 to Stowmarket but the scoreline does not give the Stradbroke the credit they deserve for a well driven game and a final big push to battle to the end.

Player of the match went to Jai Williams for his fantastic work in defence and his wonderful worked goal while playing down the left midfield in the second half.