Recreativo Juniors 0-3 Crown & Manor Jan 18th

It seems that the whole of Market Road is gnarled up with traffic this evening as we search for somewhere to park and offload our excitable bunch of under 9s. It’s always a welcoming site, the floodlights cutting through the winter evening’s darkness, illuminating the dark green astro-turf. The now familiar colours of the various team’s kits flashing across the pitches. Groups of parents and supporters stand huddled on the terrace cheering and shouting as the early kick offs are reaching the final whistle and we await our turn to get out on the pitch.
We have a great game tonight. If we were ever too worried about our score lines, we would have packed up long ago. But what keeps us going is the spirit and drive shown by our players, the willingness to keep having ago. For the first half at least, we matched Crown & Manor all over the pitch. Zeki had a particularly good game getting involved in everything in midfield. Louis showed some lovely touches and skill. We told Benji to lose his smile tonight, go out there mean and moody and not let anybody get past him. He done exactly that and showed some real confidence that seemed to flow through the team. Despite going three down, it was a much improved performance. With the manager on the look out for one or two new players to add to the squad, the future does look bright for this very special football team. Confidence, a little more experience and a couple of new signings should hopefully turn things around for the second half of the season.

Team (all played) : George Wakefield, Sam Abdullah-Kirton, Jaye Paul, Benji Barbour-Ricketts, Louis Dillon, Zeki Bolat, Storm Gregory-Hickling, Jaden Stephenson, Harry Butcher, Daniel Garcia Fernandez, Lara Tollington, Ollie Goldblatt.