NJFC U9’s at Hillsborough home of Sheffield Wednesday
19th May 2013 Sheffield Tournament
On the 19th of May the U9’s played at a tournament in Sheffield, nerves played a big part in their opening games and it took two defeats before they got to grips with playing in such a great venue. In their 3rd game (After a fantastic manager’s team talk)
NJFC U9’s at Hillsborough home of Sheffield Wednesday for a Tournament
Nerves played a big part in their opening games and it took two defeats before they got to grips with playing in such a great venue. In their 3rd game (After a fantastic manager’s team talk), they shocked the opposition with 3 goals in 2 minutes, who up until that point had fancied their chances against a Navenby team who had failed to deliver on the big stage. Johnny opened the scoring with an unbelievable shot right from the off, this was quickly follow by a headed goal from Kieran (is that his first of the season?), nicely set up by our right back Alfie ooops I mean Liam, with the third coming from a wonderful strike by Freddie.
The All stars were constantly under pressure in this Lincolnshire derby, with Freddie, Alfie and Johnny combining well on the right wing and through the middle. Leaving the left wing to the days Captain Harry, who worked his magic threading through some neat passes. Navenby came out 3-2 winners after a nervous end to the match which saw them concede two late Goals.
In the 4th game the only change in formation was the introduction of Toby as left back, a position he hadn’t played all season. He seemed to adapt well frustrating the oppositions attack interchanging with Harry down the wing.
A serious injury to our captain (the second of the day) meant he needed to retire from the game which gave Toby the opportunity to push up into his usual role on the left side of midfield where he made some great runs putting the opposition under great pressure, the Yellows went on to win the game 1-0, with a solitary goal from Kieran to set up a fifth must win match.
A win was the only chance of progressing to the knockout stages, and in the first 5 minutes Navenby threw everything including the kitchen sink at their opponents, but couldn’t find the back of the net, in most part due to some fantastic goal keeping.
Johnny nearly doubled his tally for the day with a fine drive which skimmed the cross bar, Freddie had one of his trade mark strikes hit the post, the rebound looked goal bound but was blocked by a defender on the line, Kieran and Alfie came close only to be foiled by the goalie.
As Navenby pushed to find that winning goal they left Iona isolated in defence and could have easily been 2 or 3 goals down if it wasn’t for her solid defending and some great goal keeping by Charlie “the Cat” whose stunning saves equalled that of his opposite number.
With just a minute to go Navenby let in a soft goal from a free kick which left them far too much to do, and marked the end of their first tournament of the year. With 2 wins and 3 losses our Under 9’s were on their way home after the group stage with some valuable lessons learnt on how to play tournament football.
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Pictures from the Sheffield Tournament.
Toby, Kieran, Johnny, Bailey
Freddie, Iona, Charlie, Harry, Alfie
