Sunday 1st May 2011 - Arthur Stilley Memorial Cup Final
Leckhampton Rovers Cougars (3) - (1) Lakeside Blues
On the Lakeside website it had the sentence "could they tame the Cougars" - well we all know how that turned out! The Arthur Stilley Memorial U11 Cup Final was played at the Abbey Business Stadium, Whaddon Road in front of a hige crowd from Leckhampton Rovers. The match was to kick off at 10am and nervous boys and parents started arriving from 9am. We were let into the ground and there was the pitch - it looked big to me so to an 11 year old must have seemed vast. That was the arena, the platform for them. Not like last time we featured in a final where at U9's we were beaten in the same venue by St. Marks. A lot of the boys were from that team and knew what defeat felt like.
This was also a Lakeside Blues team that not only have we never beaten them but they had always beaten us. This fact was left of the team talk!
The toss for the dressing rooms was done with the Lakeside manager calling tails. It was heads so we had the home dressing room. The boys went through and the team names were on the doors - nice touch!
Out on the pitch we warmed up in front of the gathering fans. Some simple loosening up, stretches and shooting into the big goals. Back inside with 10minutes. A last minute team talk and then a few words from Enzo who had come down to support the boys. Great moment from Conor who after Enzo had said his peice turned to Luca and said "...who's that?..." ( i genuinely thought everyone knew Enzo!
We came out onto the pitch through the tunnel to an almighty roar from the fans. We had excellent support and easily outnumbered the Lakeside fans.
We had the kick-off and looked sluggish. The first 10minutes was difficult to watch with the Cougars not getting going. Something that has been a problem a lot of the season. Maybe the boys were a little overawed by the occasion? We were second to the ball, apprehensive about taking control.
Gradually we started getting into the game with Jacob, Tom, Conor and Freddie getting more control through the middle, and Sam seeing the space out wide on the right. With play condensed down the left hand side there were acres and when we switched the ball it was with great effect. Sam received the ball and played it into the right channel for Daniel to run onto and finish with a lovely lob over the outrushing keeper. This first goal really changed things, we settled down and started to dominate play......
You can read the full match report on the Cougars website here...
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