Kids football.

[Hants_red]

A wet autumnal day and a visit to the local municipal park. Seems the boys weren't up for it today, and their goalkeeper had a blinder. Despite all that, the boys ambled to a 13-2 win. Son got the last, a curling shot from the edge of the box - so extra Yorkshire pudding for his dinner.

 

[Alistair20000]

Saw some of this at SJP yesterday.

On reflection, some of it was not even that good.

 

[Antony Moxey]

Good to see Blues back to winning ways at Alphington yesterday morning after last week's draw at home to Stoke Hill. It didn't take Blues long to race into a 3-0 lead and it looked for all the world as though a tonking was on the cards, however in the second half Alphas had other ideas pulling one back within seconds of the start.

But despite the ball rarely being more than a couple of yards from the Alphington box, it just would not go in! Talk about frustrating! But still, in the end it was a good win against tough opposition.

 

[Ian Sideman]

Nice post on the Kids football thread. Classy.

Oh the irony.

 

[Antony Moxey]

The irony being what exactly?

 

[Antony Moxey]

Bit of a departure today with a school game to report on, this time it's Exmouth Comp away to Millfield in the U13 national cup. With the Comp boasting no less than five Blues players, one ex player plus a St Martins player, they've got a damned fine squad and went into their third round game at the £30k+ a year Millfield full of confidence.

And it was well founded too, running out handsome 5-0 winners, with Harry scoring his first ever school goal too, and completely battering their hosts from first whistle to last. In fact, had the score been doubled it still wouldn't have told the true story of their utter dominance.

Well done Harry, and well done Exmouth Comp, looking forward to seeing who the opposition will be for the fourth round now, and what a great way to spend an afternoon!

 

[Antony Moxey]

Blues winning ways continue with a 5-0 result against Ottery this morning, but with the way the league is going is 5-0 enough? Both St Martins and Stoke Hill have scored 14 more so far this season and it's getting tougher at the top. Hey ho, just have to keep winning then I suppose...

 

[mustangspeed2006]

Blues winning ways continue with a 5-0 result against Ottery this morning, but with the way the league is going is 5-0 enough? Both St Martins and Stoke Hill have scored 14 more so far this season and it's getting tougher at the top. Hey ho, just have to keep winning then I suppose...

Reading back a few pages I've noticed that your son's team has won handsomely (5+ goals) on nearly every occasion. Is it normal at this level of football for 1 or 2 teams to 'walk' the league? Why is this the case?
Also does it ever get boring seeing the team muller sub-standard opposition every week? I'm guessing that there isn't a higher league your son's team could apply for?

BTW I don't know a lot about youth football, so am genuinely interested.

 

[Hants_red]

Not too good. Off to a village near Woking. First game of the season where the opposition really competed with us. Team found wanting and didn't have the ideas to deal with. The neat passing game they are so capable of disappeared. 3-0 down at half time. Much better in the 2nd half, but whilst there were shots on target, they were rather tame affairs. Finished with a 4-3 defeat, the first of the season. Hopefully this will be a wake up call, and they'll be ready next Sunday.

 

[Antony Moxey]

Reading back a few pages I've noticed that your son's team has won handsomely (5+ goals) on nearly every occasion. Is it normal at this level of football for 1 or 2 teams to 'walk' the league? Why is this the case?
Also does it ever get boring seeing the team muller sub-standard opposition every week? I'm guessing that there isn't a higher league your son's team could apply for?

BTW I don't know a lot about youth football, so am genuinely interested.

In Harry's case they are an exceptional team - they've only lost once in the league in three years. However, there's always someone snapping at their heels (this season there's two) so the top of the league is quite tight this season.

And yes, the sevens, eights and nines does get boring, but what can you do? Break the team up? Most of those boys have been together since the team was first formed nearly five years ago, most have been through school together and most play in the same school team. Perhaps it's up to everyone to up their games, but whatever, we've played players out of position, given the keeper a run up front, played different formations etc etc, but what can a team do when they take the keeper out and he goes and scores a couple himself?

But having said all that the football they play at times is an absolute delight to watch, plus they have a very good work ethic so earn their right to rack up a shed load of goals. And then, every now and then, a team turns up and really makes them earn their corn - these are the games you want to play every weekend, and today's cup game was a case in point. They played Plymstock Utd in the Devon Cup and eventually ran out 4-2 winners, but what a belting game it was. They should have had double that but the Plymstock keeper was in fine form and after going 3-0 up Plymstock dragged it back to 4-2 before Blues made it safe with a fourth late on.

Proper football played in a proper spirit with everyone going home happy that they'd done their best - including the opposition.

As for going up further, unfortunately not. Blues have been Division One Champions for the last two seasons so we enquired about playing in the age above. Apparently because we have a player already playing a year above his age we couldn't go up as he'd be then playing two years above his age. Brilliant logic eh!