Boys U16 Major 1: Naas AFC U16 Major 1 0 – 2 Kilcullen

Match Report

You will receive a calendar invitation by email. 17 lads turned up yesterday, which I think is the most we’ve ever had and was brilliant to see. In our previous two games against Arlington and Moone, we conceded within the first two minutes, but didn’t drop our heads.

In training on Thursday and in the pre-match team talk, we discussed and focused on defending as a team and not conceding early. Kilcullen are the league leaders and had us on the ropes for most of the game. Halfway though the first half we switched formation from 4-4-2 to 4-5-1 to make it harder for them to get through us.

The lads worked really hard and kept out Kilcullen until nearly the end of the first half. I think we defended well collectively with plenty of effort and running, although I do think we gave Kilcullen a bit too much respect and didn’t close them when we could have. We also didn’t push up when we had the ball and rushed many of our opportunities, which meant we kept inviting pressure back on ourselves and struggled to get out of our own half.

We made a few changes 15 minutes from the end to try and take control of the centre and give our forwards a better chance. We’ve lads up front who are very good on the ball and can jinx past people and hit the back of the net, but we didn’t manage to give them any clear chances. Kilcullen scored again late in the second half to make it 2-0 at the final whistle.

I know the lads were a bit disheartened at the end of the game, even more so than on Monday where we narrowly lost 5-4 to Arlington. I’d encourage them to look at the positives. We achieved our main goal and didn’t concede early and kept ourselves in it.

We defended as a team and I could see lads trying to hold up play to let others get back into position. As the other coaches said on the sideline at the end, the lads had more of a chance than they believed. For the longest while there was just one goal in it, and we had the wind behind us in the second half and I was hopeful we could equalise.

In training this week I’ll highlight these positives and how hard we can make it for teams to score when we defend as a team from the outset. We’ll have to work on our transitions so we move the whole team up the pitch when we get the ball, instead of sitting back and inviting pressure. Dorking Wanderers Youth U13 Youth Yellows

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