DATE: 26.7.08
OPPONENTS: ASHBURTON
LOCATION: WARNER RESERVE ASHBURTON
THE SCORE NOT AN ACCURATE REFLECTION
The Blues gathered at Warner Reserve for the return clash against Ashburton, as did their parents and loyal supporters. The last time these two teams met they had a tough battle which ended up in a 2 – 2 draw.
While Christopher and Peter were still enjoying the hot overseas weather, Jack and Michael were feeling the effects of the Melbourne flu season and were unavailable to play.
Both teams started off well and shared equal possession of the ball.
Marko in goals had a relatively quiet first half but when he was required to perform he did.
Billy and Ethan were excellent in the defensive wings and shut the opposition down each time they attacked.
Damian and Corey also gave our opponents headaches not allowing them to approach our goal easily. Justin rejoined the squad fully recovered from his jet-lag and along side Declan they both cleared the ball well and also distributed it up forward.
Alexander chased the ball hard and put in a big effort to make sure our boys kept possession of the ball.
Stefan again had some big clearances and helped to put the ball in our forward line regularly.
The first half finished with both teams yet to score but Doncaster having a lot of the possession and almost scoring on several occasions.
During the second half the Blues continued applying pressure and retaining possession of the ball.
Tim did a lot of running with the ball up forward a had a few good shots on goal as did James who threatened to score on several occasions and was very unlucky not to put the ball in the back of the net at least three times.
Jake took charge of the right wing, running the ball up forward and distributing it towards the opposition’s goal area.
During an Ashburton attack the ball bounced the right way for them and with a strong long range volley strike the ball lobbed up to the far corner of our goal at the highest point making it an unstoppable ball for Marco and I’m sure for any Under 10 keeper.
Being 1-0 down the Blues picked up the pace and persisted to put the ball in our opponents goal area and had a few more very near misses on goal.
Unfortunately the clock ran down before our boys could
convert one of the near misses into a goal and the final score read Ashburton 1 Doncaster 0.
The Blues put in an excellent performance and demonstrated some of the skills that they have learned this season with some great passing, strong defending and clever attacking and it’s a credit to them that only one solitary goal separates these two teams to date, given the fact that Ashburton have only lost one game so far for the whole season.
The final score was not an accurate reflection of how well Doncaster played.
Training is as per normal Wednesday 5.30pm at Donvale Reserve.
See you all there.
