Broadstone Braves vs Bearwood United

Braves 2 - Bearwood 3

Right! What were the odds stacked against us today?

• Last minute change of pitch by Bearwood (albeit they where informed Friday night!)
• Manager who decided he had to be linesman...
• Bearwood 14 players...rolling and rolling and rollling subs (we had no subs)...
• Two of our team plaiyng despite having been ill yesterday..
• Two of our team off with injury...
• One team member unavailable due to other pressing commitment...

I could go on, but it really doesn't matter that much because despite all of this we had a brilliant game!

A change of tactics saw Tristan Jalie, Josh Powley, Alex Sharp and Mark Donachy provide a strong defensive line...some fantastic tackles by all these lads ensured Bearwood had to fight very hard for their goals and I'm convinced had they of had the same in number as us the outcome would of been different.

Luke Woodhouse and Chris Birrell worked well together up front having a number of attacking opportunities scoring one a piece....Chris Birrells goal was set up by an excellent knock forward by Mark Donachy and Luke Woodhouse put it in the top left corner from a difficult angle...superb!

Sam Klein had a number of good runs up the right wing, he did very well considering this ins't his normal position...some fantastic crosses by Sam meant that Chris and Luke could keep the pressure on.

Matt Lonnen and Joe Jordan covered the mid-field and had to work hard for the whole hour as this was very much a game played down the middle by Bearwood...Ben Blade had a good game tackling without fear and putting in some good runs down the left wing.

Last, but definately not least, our top Goalee Ben Stocker...Ben goes from strength to strength in goal and demonstrated his ability to get straight onto the ball especially during some Bearwood corner kicks...fantastic!!!

Man of the match this week was Alex Sharp. Strong tackles saw Alex win the ball on a number of occasions which he followed up by some great clearances...well done Alex!

Next Week we play Poole Town Wessex Rovers...we won last time we played them (they are now 3rd in the league and there's still not much in it).

Well Done Braves!

Braves Vs New Milton Robins...

Braves 0 - New Milton 7

Now with a score like this you'd think the Robins out classed us all the way...how wrong you'd be!

Our first half of the match was fantastic putting the Divisional leaders under pressure from the start...an unlucky slip of the ball from Ben Stockers hands meant the Robins goal hanging attacker took full advantage and tapped it in the back of the net. Unlucky Ben. Half time and we were 1 nil down having had the majority of the possession and some good attempts at goal. The Robins keeper performed extremely well and kept out our best efforts...(They changed their goalee from when we played them last..this one is bigger and better).

The second half kicked off and, to be honest, it's difficult to know what went wrong...I could go on about the Robins having the advantage of the down hill slope bla, bla, bla but the bottom line is we let ourselves down. We had a number of stoppages due to injured players, Joe Jordan received a ball in the chest which knocked the wind out of him and slowed him down for the rest of the match. In accurate passing and weak tackles saw our heads drop as the Robins took full advantage of our predicament....

Putting all this to one side we continue to show flashes of absolute brilliance and rather than brood upon the end result I want to say that the first half was superb....it's a shame we couldn't maintain it.

Man of the Match was Ben Blades (awarded for sheer determination in trying to slow down the oppositions attackers and not giving up or the whole match...well done Ben).

Next Sunday we're playing Bearwood....if we work on our midfield and central defence this coming Saturday I'm confident we can get back into our winning streak!

Take a look at the league table, there's not that much in it so we can finish in the top three if we remain determined...and get a few early nights before each match!

http://www.dorsetyouthfootball.co.uk/tables.php?season=2009&league=13&division=4

See you next Saturday.