U9 Braves This season so far.

We've had a difficult start to the season so far as we have been plagued by injuries. Our first match was against West Moors at home. Unfortunately our goalkeeper, Harry (the Tiger) Eaton had a knee injury so Ryan (Rhino) Meaney stepped in to play the first half and Freddy Everett the second. Both showed great courage and did their best to live up to Harry. We ended up losing 3-4 but not through lack of effort by the whole team without exception. Man of the match (MOM) was (mad) Max Purton who has really grown into his new position of left back, intercepting and tackling like a demon. Goal scorers were Charlie (Chas) Tilsed 2 and Sam (Saminator) Powell 1. The match was unfortunately marred by unsavory behavior by West Moors parents shouting abuse at the referee and players. This will not be tolerated in the future as we have adopted the "respect" initiative from the FA.

Our second match was away to Moordown Athletic which saw Harry return. We lost 7-3 but the score doesn't reflect the match. Max was once again outstanding and was MOM. The lads were only 7 as Jack Williamson was out this time with a leg injury. They fought bravely but gave an uneven performance. Every one of them showed periods of individual brilliance but not consistently resulting in defeat. Goal scorers were Sam Powell 1 and Ryan Meaney 2. I'm sure it will be a different story when we meet them at home.

We had to forfeit the match against Highcliffe because Harry, Ben and Jack were all injured and Max was away so we only had 4 players.

The boys have shown great enthusiasm and dedication in practice so we've added an extra half an hour. This became evident in our third game on Sun 5/10 away to Milford. Every player showed great strength and improvement. Freddy was MOM and was just a dynamo up front chasing down every ball and his determination got us a well fought for first goal. It was good to have Harry, Ben and Jack back from injury and all were solid at the back as was Max. We played a 2-3-1 formation for the first time and Charlie, Sam and Ryan proved to be formidable in midfield both in defense and attack with Ryan and Charlie getting the other two goals to win 3-2. All in all it was a great performance and hopefully it will give the boys some well earned confidence for future games.