doing it for the kids:
|
Posted: January 29th 2010
Click here to feedback
I really did intend to keep to my promise of ensuring this blog was a weekly one, but you know what they say about the best laid plans...well come to think of it, I don’t know what they say. It’s usually something along the lines of “well you know what they say about the best laid plans...” - at which point the speaker simply tails off.
I guess it’s all in the delivery, the tailing off leading to the assumption on the listener’s part that what ‘they’ say is that the aforementioned best laid plans rarely come to fruition. Well, they haven’t here...and my vain hope is that by waffling on like this, both my regular readers will forgive me.
So where were we? Around week 11 of the season, late November...I missed a couple of weeks’ blogging then before I knew it there was the usual Christmas break, which due to the big freeze ended up as 6 weeks rather than the usual 2 or 3...and as I lost my kids’ football focus for a while, so this blog fell by the wayside.
Let’s get back to business...
Our u12 girls have fallen into a groove. Bang in the middle of our lopsided division, we lose to the teams above us, normally going 2-0 down within 5 minutes then deciding to make a game of it, holding the oppo to 5-1, and leaving the coaches thinking what could be achieved with enough conviction to keep it 0-0 for the first 20. Meanwhile we manage to overcome the lower ranking teams if not with ease, then certainly with a self-belief that the girls simply refuse to transfer to the tougher matches. This is what it must be like to be...oh, I dunno...Roberto Martinez (that’s a fatter, balder, older, English version of Wigan’s suave Spaniard).
The u16 boys have undergone something of a renaissance since I last reported on them, picking up regular points, culminating in a pre-xmas away win against one of the toughest teams in the League. Me, I was with the girls watching the aforementioned 5-1 defeat...whilst the lads improbably out-fought a team from one of the hardest parts of town, winning a yellow card-strewn match 3-2. We’ve decided we’ll pay the fines received for the recent rash of yellow cards out of the team kitty. At u8s the kitty is used primarily for jelly & ice cream...at u13 it’s for go-karting socials...at u16 it pays yer fines. Presumably come u19 it’s beer money.
Last Sunday (officially Week 15 of the scheduled season) was, unfortunately, a different story. The small lad I referred to in a pre-xmas blog has, as threatened, quit the team citing “lack of first team opportunities”. With another long term injured, our squad is suddenly looking a bit thin...and when we discover three of the team have booked a birthday paintballing trip and another is off to Centerparcs (all on the basis that this was our ‘free Sunday’ in the original fixture list) for the first time ever we are faced with the prospect of playing a full 80 minutes with ten men.
Frantic calls to various players whose registrations we still hold (those who’ve quit, ‘emergency cover’ lads and so on) fail to get us up to our full complement. So ten it is, especially disappointing as it’s against a team we beat earlier in the season, and were confident of doing so again.
I mentioned this lot’s manager in the blog last season. Good winner bad loser probably sums it up. This situation is made for him...”it’s tough with ten, we’ve been there”...”your lads are giving it a really good shot”....”would’ve been interesting 11 v 11”...”they’re a credit to you”...but all said with an underlying tone of “beat you, yer bastards!”. As we’re holding our post-match de-brief, he completes his, and sends his lads over to give ours a round of applause. I shouldn’t be cynical, I should accept it for the sporting gesture it is. Meanwhile, 16 year olds on both sides just squirm & snigger with embarrassment.
4-1 was the final score. Annoying thing is, were it not for two very soft goals conceded in about three minutes shortly before half time, we really could have got a result...
Watch out for next week’s report when we’ll be taking in a grudge match for the boys, a potential hiding to nothing for the girls, and updating you on the latest shenanigans with the Saturday morning youngsters...