Castle Bromwich U11 Vs Alvechurch Lions U11
Played at Castle Bromwich, Sunday 20th November 2009, Kick off: 11.30pm
‘Great weather for fish, or boats, or umbrellas’
Quote from the oppositions parents on the touchline.
‘’It’s been so wet my son has grown gills’’ spouted a member of the LBA, who were slowly congealing on the touchline - lucky it wasn’t flippers everyone thought in response. Although, to be fair, with todays match weather and conditions it would probably have significantly helped things.
The day was cold, very cold, wet, very wet and the pitch a heaving morass of wet, sticky, dirty brown mud.
Lets be fair here – it’s a perfect football environment, so long as you don’t have to wash the kit afterwards. Dads and lads were loving it, but Moms dreading it.
Travelling in disperate bunches of ones and twos the Lions and LBA had all landed at the first set of swings and climbing frames they could see at the SatNav driven location. The mood was as grey as the skyline as we were there on our own, no CRAIG MANAGER, or more tellingly signs of the opposition. We all thought it was off, even COACH ANDY, cursing the poor mobile reception on the journey over not allowing him to know earlier. However, RAY BLINKERS came to the rescue donning wellies and a brolly he trooped off into the grim depths of Castle Brom to look for the opposition. Some minutes later RAY reappeared bemused that the pitch had moved from the previous friendly and they were all set and good to go! Brilliant the parents thought in unison at the thought of further hypothermia and wet socks. ANNE BLINKERS was sporting a natty pair of pink shoes which we all mused were probably not the best colour for a muddy field…what colour will they be next week? Will girl wellies make a break fro cover and the newly recited LBA members start adding more colour and glamour to the brown, beige and denim ranks of the LBA Dads? More Gok Wan fashion reports next week.
We needed cheering up. Boy did we get it from the Lions – the lads were truly fantastic today.
Down to the bare bones of the squad, through absence and illness, the Lions drastically depleted U11 squad consisted of Connor ‘The Cat’ Goalie, Ted ‘The Wall’ Coley (MIA chest infection), Michael ‘Duggo’ Duggins, Max ‘Legohead’ Rollins, Alex Lee (MIA at his Moms), Harry ‘Rudi’ Cashmore, James ‘The Tent’ Walden, Matty ‘Dangerous’ Steadman, Jake ‘Man of’ Stone (MIA illness), Oliver ‘Bandit’ Howarth (MIA illness), Kieran ‘Happy Feet’ Killeen (Early withdrawal due to injury post KO), Jordan ‘Little Jord or Headskiband (it’s the Russian version)’ Rageh, Kane ‘Dora’ Brough, Scotty ‘Blinkers’ Hancock and Eddie ‘Ironman’ Gwilliam. Things looked grim – the bare ROLLINS 11 were ready for action and faced the daunting proposition of Castel Brom who we had already been beaten in a friendly pre-season.
It was brilliant, the best Lions performance we have ever witnessed as supporters and parents. Everyone associated with club was walking around 12 feet tall during and after the game – a privilege to be associated with the team last Sunday. In short I will describe each player’s performance as its better that way:
Connor ‘The Cat’ Goalie – Excellent today between the sticks, great goal kicking and handling in spite of injury!
Michael ‘Duggo’ Duggins – Excellent at the heart of the defence with his trusty partner Leghead: non stop running, bags of pace and determination in spades.
Max ‘Legohead’ Wykes – Excellent all round performance in hand with Duggo. Great heading and tackling everywhere in defence.
James ‘The Tent’ Walden – Excellent performance and very consistent, covered acres with his trusty little legs!
Harry ‘Rudi’ Cashmore – best game ever I thought – solid, effective and hardworking on the right of midfield.
Matty ‘Dangerous’ Steadman – playing left back in Ted’s absence was excellent, tremendous performance out of position.
Kieran ‘Happy Feet’ Killeen – Excellent start and looked good going forward early on but was forced to withdraw from the game early due to injury post KO. Get well soon big guy!
Jordan ‘Little Jord or Headskiband’ Rageh – persistent running and closing down, several chances – one will nestle in the onion bag soon! Keep trying!
Eddie ‘Ironman’ Gwilliam – Captain for the day and every right to stand proud, put tackles in constantly, good passing across the midfield and kept spirits high.
Kane ‘Dora’ Brough. – Hard working and tackling got the team’s goal that hard work rewards, good passing going forward.
Scotty ‘Blinkers’ Hancock – excellent in central midfield, drove team forwards with Eddie while adding nice classy touches on the ball which will worry any defence.
In essence, you were all brilliant. Be under no doubts even though we lost we played all the footie, pass and move, and looked the better team and most dangerous going forward. With the midfield starting to defend and help protect the defence we looked a really good footie team who deserve to be playing in this Division. If it wasn’t for tired legs and only having 10 men on the pitch for nearly all the game we would have held out we are all sure. The strikers looked hungry and the defence excellent repelling everything thrown at them. Highlights were Dora’s goal, Blinkers passing, Ironman's tackling and Dug’s running and goal line clearance to keep everything level.
Half time score: Castle Brom 1 - Lions 1.
Full time score: Castle Brom 5 - Lions 1 (an exhausted 10 man Lions team!).
This was awesome today Lions. Keep it coming next week – someone is going top catch a thumping off us soon if we continue to play like this – Good Luck Sunday at home at The den….
Supporters Man of the Match: MICHAEL ‘Duggo’ DUGGINS
Managers Man of the Match: Scott ’Blinkers’ Hancock
Apologies this week for the absence of our bonus feature but rest assured it will make a speedy return next week!!
