Old Coulsdon Colts 9a 7 v 0 Warren Mead

Welcome back to the start of another season with renewed vitality and vigour – Coach Neale-Smith and Eager Edger have completed their coaching course over the summer and passed – well done to them!! We look forward to a new format where only encouragement will be given to the boys during the match and no instructions. This will indeed give the boys something to think about and also help them to progress with their understanding and reading of the game. Good luck therefore to one and all for hopefully another exciting season ahead.

A big welcome to our new signing Tomas who hopefully will be registered for the next game.

We all arrived at our home ground for 9.30am. The pitch inspection was carried out by super mum Chris with the poop bag!! Mario was a referee and also pre match trainer. Eager Edger sorted out the team play and rota and Coach Neale-Smith made sure that all the boys were match fit. Unfortunately poor Shaun was not fit for the game today and we hope that he will feel better soon. However, thanks to both Kobi and Michael our goalkeeper was substituted by two great boys.

The boys got started on their warm up and were in good spirits ready to start another season of footie.Super Mario was our ref today, and hopefully this season his cards could stay in their pocket. The support was ready on the sideline with the chorus girls – Chris, Valentina & Linda to give the boys encouragement along with the three tenors – Steve, Fil and Richard. Our mascot Emma was also there to lend her support.

The starting line up consisted of Michael, Cameron, Kobi, Anthony, Harry, Luca and Callum. Harry was our team captain with our sub Tom warming the bench along side our new signing Tomas and also Shaun. The team checks took place and we were ready for the first half.

Super Mario blew the starting whistle and we were off. The Colts started off like a new team. Within the first 5 minutes of the game from a great pass by Luca across to Cameron we scored our first goal 1 – 0 to the Colts. Obviously the coaching sessions seemed to playing dividends as the boys were really alert with some great passing. It was not long when Warren Mead unfortunately made a tactical error with a back pass which was picked up by Cameron and the score line was 2 – 0. My fingers could not write fast enough when through a great pass by Harry through to Michael who scored using his left foot – hooray 3 – 0 to the Colts. My nerves were starting as I have never felt so excited watching the boys play such great football as they were playing today. All the boys, but especially those up front Harry, Michael, Cameron and Luca were making some great passes which made the game brilliant to watch to see how their skills had developed. The defence was then tested by Warren Mead and Kobi had his first touch of the ball and made a great save. Well done Kobi. The ball was then passed upfront again and Harry scored yet another brilliant goal 4 – 0 to the Colts. Unfortunately Harry then sustained a toe injury and had to come off. This meant that Anthony moved up and Tom came on in defence. The defence then had a bit of work to do and Tom made a great header and sent the ball out. The first half was really full of excitement and Anthony made a great pass up to Cameron, but unfortunately this time we were unable to convert. Luca in particular seemed to be everywhere today with some great technical footwork and passing shot.

The whistle for half time then blew and the Colts were up 4 – 0 – well done boys.

The spectators were elated today what a great start to our season let us hope that we can sustain this.

Coach Neale-Smith then asked the boys how did they think they playing? All of them thought they passing, talking and covering was going well. Also Callum knocked the nail on the head when he said we were not afraid of having a go at goal. Coach Neale-Smith then said to the boys that we needed to go back thinking that we had a 0 – 0 score line and see how we could keep the play going in the second half.

The sub at the start of the second half was Cameron.

The second half began with as much excitement as the first, but Warren Mead really tried hard in this second half to come back at us. Our first corner in this second half was taken by Anthony who made a great pass through to Luca but unfortunately we just went wide of the goal. Warren Mead then took charge of the ball and nearly scored their first goal of the match, but unfortunately this hit the cross bar, they were very unlucky.

The first ten minutes of this half had a lot of variety and showed some great football. A substitution was then made and Anthony who had worked really hard came off and Cameron came on. It was not long before our 5th goal came, but unfortunately this was an own goal by Warren Mead. 5 – 0 the score line.

The boys then stepped up the pace again showing some great ball skills and this resulted in another goal by Harry 6 – 0 the score line. The match was being played at a really fast pace and within the closing minutes of the game another goal was scored by Luca. Well done boys 7 – 0 the score line.

Eager Edger and Coach Neale-Smith could only praise the boys on such a wonderful performance, however , we still need to keep our feet on the ground because not all our match will be this easy.

This week the Man of the Match was Luca who had a brilliant game and showed some brilliant ball skills. Well done to Luca.

As match reporter this week I have to say my pen was very busy with all the goals scored – at times I nearly lost count, well done to one and all. Unfortunately, I am unable to do the match report for the next two weeks, but I am handing this over to super mum Chris – who I know will do a brilliant job. Many thanks.

Anyway signing out and off to pack boxes - cheers Mary.