Badgers Vs Kings Heath Pickwick

Kings Heath Pickwick 2 v 0 Yardley Badgers

The Captain and coach along with six of the team arrived minutes before push back due to some players failing to show at the rendezvous for transport. No chance of any pre-warm up drills or practice, it was keepers kit on and straight into game mode. The early start didn’t dull the visitors enthusiasm and they started brightly. The midfield worked hard and stifled many of the home teams forays into our half. We had a sole striker Shamikh and he held his position high hoping for midfield support when he got the ball. In the last few weeks Yardley have had  five substitutes but this week it  was a bare eleven. The team shape was solid and the midfield quartet of Shamikh, Sean, Ethan and Wahaj battled bravely in the centre and constantly broke up play of the home team.

After ten minutes of evenly matched play the home team surged forward overpowering our middle and got four or five good shots at goal. Fortunately our Captain and stand in keeper Paul made the saves keeping it all even. Our sweeper roll was taken up by Kyle and his constant running and pressing also kept us in the game. Our strong defence of Noah, John Ballard, Edan and Jack were gradually being put under more and more pressure by Kings Heaths advances. The defence all made good tackles and played a no nonsense style and cleared their lines constantly. With ten minutes in the half left it was all players dropping deep to defend and to their credit the whole team did defend as a unit. We never really got the ball up to Shamikh in this period and this pressure eventual lead to the home teams first goal. A cross from the right couldn't have been stopped by defence or keeper and a waiting striker swept  the ball into the net at the back post. The Badgers weathered another frantic seven minutes before the half time whistle.

Second half was a very different affair with both teams more evenly matched. Shamikh was more involved and was constantly supported by the midfield. Our defence still had to defend and the keeper again had to make some important saves. The team worked hard for each other and even though they had no substitutes they worked tireless. The home team again had lots of penalty corners but the speed Kyle rushed out to meet the lead hitter  gave them little time to shoot cleanly. The majority of Yardley attacks came from breakaways but they happened often in this half. There was actually five instances were it was three Yardley forwards against a solitary defender. Some resulted in shots others broke down by timely interceptions. Around the hour mark the home team got their second goal of the game. The keeper pushed to the penalty spot to close the angle of a Kings Heath player if he beat the defender. The lad took the ball onto his reverse and it beat the keeper and was travelling wide but took the unkindliness of deflections off our defender marking the forward on the back post and it trickled over the line. To Yardley's credit they kept up their improved performance of the second half and continued to test the defence of Kings Heath on two more occasions.

We are now halfway through the season 2016/17 and the squad has changed dramatically this season with lots of new faces and a much younger make up to the whole team. All our games have been close ( except for the West Bromwich game) with only one or two goals splitting the teams. All the players have improved and it's great to see those who have moved into the Second team also settling in quickly. The second half of the season we should all be aiming to improve the return fixture results, which I'm confident we will. Enjoy the hockey break and  see you all in the new year, all raring to build on all the good work you have all done so far.