Mendlesham F.C. U14 5 vs 4 Stradbroke YFC U14's

A game of 2 halves, a Stradbroke should have all but buried the maych in the first half with a hat trick for Captain Jimmy, leading by example as he always does, and a fantastic first goal from Jordan who has certainly proved to himself that he a integral cog in the team, we managers knew he had it there and today with no pressure on his shoulders he delivered not just through the goal but with movement and attacking play. Robin also deserve a mention as he pretty mich covered eveey inch od the pitch during the 90 mins and would not let the opposition rest. It was 4-1 at half time.

Then the blame for what happened next I place on my own shoulders, being 3 up I decided to give Jai the chance to play up front which he enjoys get the chance if he can and he made some great runs into the box. This decision though led to maybe us thinking we could just carry on and walk the 2nd half. Memdlesham though to give credot where credit is due came out ro prove otherwise and in the first 15 mins had managed to pull back 2 goals to make it a one goal margin. Jai was then put back into defence to see if we could bring some calm to the team as Mendlesham sped from 50% effort in the 1st half to 100% in the 2nd. Unfortunately, as we are prone to do, Stradbroke started to play too defensively with there being no midfield further up the potch to help play the ball up to the forwards and the defense sitting firmly on the goal box line. Mendlesham took advantage and with a couple of slow to get out goal box scraps they manage to get 2 more past us to take the victory. Deflated yes, a valuable learning moment for not just the team but me too yes, but he first half performamce and the never give up attitude from the team shows that Stradbroke truely have come on leaps and bounds from last season and now the cup is over for us; we will be fully working on trying to notch up as many points as we can in the last 3 league matches od the season. Player of the match was Captain Jimmy for a fantastic performance right till the final whistle.