Division 2 results & league table 26/09

Chorleywood Panthers 6-3 Hemel Town Youth
Comets Lions 8-5 Herons
Harpenden Colts Cobras 1-5 Hemel Aces Diamonds
Little Gaddesden 7-2 Evergreen Juniors
Rickmansworth Rebels 5-2 Kings Langley

League: Comets Lions 8-5 Herons

A very windy morning perched up on Comets' home ground, Gadebridge Park in Hemel. Looking back through my records, it would appear to be a pitch that Archie has had mixed results on in the past. The most recent match he played here was for Evergreen Juniors in the semi-final of the league cup which ended in defeat (albeit due to a couple of extenuating circumstances already discussed on this blog). Archie started todays game upfront alongside Kian, but spent most of the game in midfield.

I'm not really going to write much about the first half of this game as none of the lads (Archie included) really turned up until the second half. We went in at half time 6-1 down! Our only goal of the first half was scored by central defender and captain Liam, from a free-kick. Good goal, but the Comets keeper was at fault really as fumbled the catch.

Herons' manager Paul gave the boys what for during the half time team talk, I chipped in too with some advice. The second began and we got straight back into the game. Archie had a couple of half chances against the Comets keeper but nothing came of them. Nothing really seemed to be going his way. Archie's confidence picked up a little and manage to set up two of our second half goals. The first was for James S's goal. The ball came to Archie with his back to goal, he turned the defender brilliantly, took a touch and James (who was running at speed) kind of took the ball from Archie in his stride and took it around the keeper and planted it in. He then set up Kian's goal. He ran with the ball down the left wing, muscling his way past a couple of defenders, looked up and absolutely spanked the ball. The keeper got over it, took some of the speed off and deflected it a little but Kian was there to mop up.

The highlight of the game for me, apart from Archie showing one or two glimpses of his previous outstanding season with Herons, was Riccardo's performance in midfield and Connor P's second goal. Ric put the mileage in, took some lovely touches and made some wonderful passes. As for Connor P's second goal... Corner floated into the edge of the box + fantastic movement to lose his marker = powerfully place header right into the top right corner of the net. Early contender for the goal of the season award I think.

Division 2 results & league table 19/09

Evergreen Juniors 2-6 Chorleywood Panthers
Hemel Town Youth 0-1 Comets Lions
Kings Langley 1-3 Harpenden Colts Cobras
Little Gaddesden 4-1 Rickmansworth Rebels

Changes to the league

After the first weekend of fixtures, West herts youth league have been forced to reduce the amount of divisions in the under 11's age group, this is due to a handful of teams withdrawing from the league.

There are now 3 divisions, with Herons being placed in the 2nd. This means that the win we picked up last weekend is null & void as the league campaign begins (again) next weekend.

Division 2 lines up as such:

League: HTYFC 1- 2 Herons

Archie's first season of competitive football, 2 years ago, began against the same team, Hemel Town Youth, on the same pitch as the match today. Today was Archie's first competitive 11-a-side match and it also started with a win.

Herons kicked the game off and Archie started the game in left midfield alongside his good mates Connor (right wing), Riccardo (left wing) & Frankie (right mid). At first, the game was a little bit messy, lots of bundles running after the ball but it soon calmed down and some good passing football was played by both teams but it was Herons that look the team that was more likely to open the scoring. Archie was linking up really well with his fellow midfielders and also with the strikers and it was Kian (up front) who opened the scoring with a shot that sailed to the top left corner. 0-1.

HTYFC battled back but never really tested the Herons keeper, who incedidently was very vocal and very confident between the sticks. Around 10 minutes passed, Archie was switched to play up-front alongside Kian, and Herons were awarded yet another corner. Ric floated the ball across the goal mouth, there was a touch and the ball found its way to Archie on the far post. Needless to say, Archie being as clinical in front of goal as ever poked the ball home. 0-2.

The home team bagged an equaliser in the first half, a little before the half time whistle, but they didn't really pose a big threat during the second half. Archie was subbed for 5 or 7 minutes during the second half and was used as a striker and left mid throughout the game. The final whistle went, Archie and the boys were pleased to have bagged themselves 3 points. Frankie was awarded the Man of the Match medal.