With two games to look forward to this weekend, the plan was to give every player in the squad a good amount of time on the pitch and also for me to look at some players playing in different positions to the ones they’ve become accustomed to.
Our first match was an encounter with Stratton Juniors on a very chilly Saturday morning and this provided us with another very exciting game with lots of goals. Elite started the game well and created some good chances before Stratton took the lead. Then came the best move of the match when Jack P won the ball in the centre circle before spreading it wide to Joe who fed it back in for Ben to score. Then it was Stratton’s turn to take the lead again scoring twice in quick succession before Jack P again reduced the deficit. But Stratton came on strong again and scored four more times. Then in the last five minutes Elite upped the pace again scoring twice more through Jack P and Ben to make the final score 4-7.
Another good test for us today against a strong Stratton team and it’s good to see again that our players are still learning to accept defeat very well, which as I’ve said before is very important. I thought the players were getting a little complacent a month or so ago and I feel losing a few games has done us good as I see them all battling a little bit harder and wanting to concentrate more again. So these are the sort of games we want to play more often and I will continue to look for matches against strong opposition to help continue our player’s progression and learning of the game.
Another good display from everyone, keep it up!!
Final score: ESCFC 4 v Stratton Juniors 7