U12s 4 - King Stanley 3

Written by I Templeton

This has to be our best performance to date. Each of the twelve boys present today gave everything as we came from an early two goal deficit to beat league toppers, King Stanley.

We had a game plan; pack the midfield, keep it tight at the back, get amongst them and stick Jack Knowler alone up front to sniff for scraps. And boy did it work!

Fantastic to see Josh Werreitt return to action. Josh has had a tough six weeks and everyone was so pleased to see him back on the field bossing it in central defence. There were a few hearts in mouths when he was totally pole-axed in the third minute, but true to form he got back to his feet, ignored the clear pain inflicted and got on with things. Welcome back Josh, you’ve been missed.

Massive respect to Ferdinand de Carvalho. He took all sorts of punishment during the game (not all of it legitimate), but retained his composure and played like a Trojan. An immense performance Ferdy.

Declan McGettigan, Jake Hawkins and Jake Templeton played their hearts out in our centre of midfield. I can’t recall any of them putting a foot wrong. I lost count of the decisive headers and tackles won by Hawkins and McGettigan was always looking to play the killer ball through to Knowler.

The Goals

Stanley’s first was nicely put away from the penalty spot (although well done to Jake Kirkham for getting a hand to it). No grumbles from us, their boy was clearly fouled in the box. The frustration for Wanderers was that we’d been edging it up to that point, so when they then went and got a quick second management feared the worst.

However, something remarkable then happened. Oranges rolled up their collective sleeves and gave Stanley the game of their lives! Within five minutes we got one back. Ellis Cox powered down the right chipped the ball into the danger area and after a brief melee the ball fell kindly for Templeton who fired in from close range. Game on.

Shortly afterwards a poor Stanley goal kick went straight to Templeton. He shook off the full back took the ball forward ten yards and hammered home. A tremendous goal.

Stanley aren’t top of the league for no reason, they are a very good side with able footballers in every position, so when they regained the lead just before half time the pressure was back on Oranges.

What Stanley hadn’t counted on though was Knowler and a terrific second half brace secured us the victory and inflicted KS’s first dropped points of the season. Knowler’s first was classic, er, Knowler. A wonderful ball from Hawkins had our top marksman sprinting forward. He then finished expertly in the corner. Goal two was similar; this time set up by McGettigan, Knowler again ran free and fired home into the roof of the net. A fantastic feeling for Jack I’m sure and pretty good for the rest of us. The roar from the Wanderers followers would have been audible in Wotton!

Today’s wide men, Joe Sands and Cox, battled excellently. Neither did anything gung-ho both remembering their defensive duties and helping out their respective full-backs.

Talking of full backs, Matt Sands was exceptional on the right. As always, he’d played a full match earlier in the day, but looked fresh as a daisy as he stifled numerous Stanley forward forays.

Over on the left Ollie Graham and Matt Hitchings shared the duties and both did exceptionally well against tough opposition. They’ve both probably got sore ears this evening (sorry about that, Shaun instructed me to encourage you!), but neither was overawed and both justified their selections. Well done boys.

Feeling decidedly unwell Kirkham was suffering in goal, but ended up putting in one of his most solid performances so far. He could do nothing with the goals, but his all round secure handling and strong presence ensured most of Stanley’s on target efforts went unrewarded. Great game Jake!

We had a terrific turn out on the touch line and our biggest ‘crowd’ of the season endured miserable conditions to cheer our boys to victory. I’m told even Briony Hawkins got a bit over excited at one point, but thankfully John was on hand to remind her she didn’t actually like football!

Linesman extraordinaire, Andy Hitchings, was so pleased with son Matt’s great performance that he decided to celebrate with a second half back flip. Using the King Stanley medical bag for purchase he launched himself skywards. The artistry was superb, but the landing went slightly awry. It’ll be interesting to know how he explained away being covered head to toe in mud when he got back home. The good thing was he was back on his feet in a flash and hardly anyone noticed!!

Chris McGettigan had a poorly lip courtesy of a pre Xmas altercation with one of Santa’s elves, but it didn’t stop him cheering the boys to victory, and it was great to see our Goodwill Tsar, Fernando de Carvalho, making more new English friends.

Our adjudication panel (Mark) chose Jake Templeton as Man of the Match. Congratulations Jake, but I think most will agree we had twelve Men of The Match today.

Shaun and I couldn’t be prouder. (We’re not a couple, we’re just proud!!)