Posted by robin
on September 20, 2009, 7:20 pm
Oxford City Colts U13 Match Report
20th September 2009
Oxford City Colts 1 – Saxton Rovers 5
Hoping to consolidate on last week’s victory, City entertained Saxton Rovers at Court Place Farm for their third game of the season. Despite a number of minor injuries in the recent game against Marston and a few boys looking very weary in training this week, City selected a similar starting eleven with Ben Proper returning to the right side of the defence.
On an extremely warm Sunday morning Saxton looked a bigger and stronger side from the first whistle. The visitors were hungrier for the ball and won more than their fair share of possession. City, to their credit, defended well for the first 10 minutes but their lines were then breached when a well placed through ball allowed one of the Saxton strikers to place his shot into the top corner.
Worse was to follow as City conceded twice more. The first from a twenty yard free kick hit with great power into the roof of the net; the second from even further out, a sweetly timed volley again giving the defence little chance. Despite being three down after 20 minutes, City did not throw in the towel and in spells started to pass the ball around at which time they looked a more than competent side. Unfortunately they were unable to craft a reasonable shooting opportunity and the Saxton keeper was not tested.
So being 3-0 down at half-time the boys were told to keep possession and play down the wings stretching the Saxton defence. With a number of substitutions, City started the second half more brightly and for periods the two sides looked well matched. But as in previous games the boys started to tire and lost some of their discipline giving the ball away too easily and allowing the visitors to break quickly from defence into attack. And after 50 minutes this allowed Saxton the hit a high ball into the City box. The boys were punished for failing to clear the ball as one of the Saxton strikers netted from close range.
This was the cue for City to start playing their best football of the match. The boys competed for ball and pressurised the tiring Saxton defence. They were rewarded when Henry Bone latched onto a ball from Ben Tombs to restore some pride to the home side. The final 10 minutes saw end-to-end football as each side looked to add to their goal tally and with both defences running out of steam more goals looked likely. But it was Saxton who scored the final goal of the game to give them a 1-5 victory; a final score which was perhaps a little harsh on the City side that at times played some good flowing football.
So this was not a great score for City but there were some positives to take from the game. In the periods when they passed the ball the boys demonstrated that they could open up a strong Saxton defence. The City defence played more as a unit and limited the number of shooting opportunities although the visitors were extremely strong in front of goal. So plenty to work on in training this week. Finally many thanks to Tony Beechers for an excellent job as referee; to Mike Dennis for running the line; and to Jane Martin for refreshments.
Team: J Russell, B Proper, W Beechers, A Martin, B Muinami, A Ball, J Roberson, S Malik, D Dennis. B Tombs Subs C Wood, H Bone, T Walker
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