CSC Juniors first competitive match

The Cradley Sports Club Juniors, consisting of our up and coming 7 and 8-year olds, played their first friendly match against Leigh and Bransford Under 9-s. The boys had eagerly awaited this chance to test their skills, acquired as a team since January, in a real game. They had more confidence than their coach, and he was proved wrong!

Despite the opposing team being a year older, with much more league experience, the Juniors played very well, battling all the time. We always knew that our defence was going to be tested, and in the first part of the match Oscar van Vuren, Archie and Joe Connor supported Joe Cross in goal all the way, giving the Leigh and Bransford players little chance. Kier Liptrot, Kane Bruton and Fergus Cameron in midfield created some good opportunities and helped the defenders as required. Harry Dunnett up front got few chances at goal, but pressurised the Leigh and Bransford keeper when the ball came his way and even appeared in defence at times.

After the first break Elliott Finch took over the attacking position, with Tom Davies in defence and George Munrowd in midfield. The team continued to play well, with lots of encouragement from our supporters at the sideline. We even created one or two chances for shots at goal, but unfortunately did not manage to score.

As the saying goes - football is a game of 3 halves - and in the third part of the game Joe O'Neil came on in attack to replace some of our exhausted players. Leigh and Bransford kept us in our own half for much of the time, but hard work by all Cradley players meant that only in the last few minutes they managed to score, leaving the final result at 0-3.

What a great effort by our youngest players. Excellent team effort and spirit. Good support for each other and surprising positional play. And fair play all the way. The match also identified some weaknesses that Julian and Tom, the coaches, want to work on in the coming months. Next week we will be joined by Kevin, who will start coaching the older players in the team, to prepare them for the league in September.

Well done boys!