So today we took 3 teams of Under 6's to play away against UPR in Upminster. On the plus side it was an absolutely glorious day to be out playing football with near 20 degree weather and crystal clear blue skies. Another plus was that all 3 teams (Serendipity, Sigma and GMB) came away with very convincing wins.
On the negative side, firstly I do not have many pictures as the FG coaches were roped into refereeing and I figured getting the digital camera out to take pictures of our boys/girls whilst refereeing is a little inappropriate. Overall the organisation at UPR seemed poor which was evident from the very start when we were asked to referee, to then trying to understand what rules they play and for how long. After 20 mins we was initially told to stop play as they were swapping the teams around with the other game. However after half time this plan went out of the window and the same teams went on to play another 20 mins. The other big negative was the the teams were a complete mismatch in ability and to be honest our boys/girls gained nothing other than a confidence booster. We offered the opposition one of our players (which they rejected) and so we took our team down to just four players and still the play was very one sided.
It is always good to win but I feel we learned little today and if anything probably introduced a few bad habits as we tried to even things up for the opposition. Our players where being asked to retreat back further than normal, to slow up their play to give the opposition more time to try and string some passes plus some favourable refereeing in their direction -but all to no avail. The kids all did great today and should be proud of themselves. Some games will be easy and some will be a lot more challenging. Our teams have been on both ends of the spectrum so we know exactly how it felt for UPR today.
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| Team Sigma Broking L-R : Coach Lee, Ethan, Alex, Mantos, Alfie, Ryan, Max and Joshua. |
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| Man of the Match for Team Sigma Broking was Ryan. |
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| Man of the Match foe Team Serendipity was Joe. |
Once the first two games were out of the way it was time for Team GMB to take to the field and unfortunately things didn't change much. Again a very one sided win and if anything even worse refereeing as there really wasn't a referee on the field at all. Fortunately the kids all knew what they were doing and the game flowed OK.
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| Team GMB L-R : Coach Alan, Owen, Jake, Darcy, Charlie, Lorne, Ryan, Ben and Jamie. |
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| Man of the Match for Team GMB was Ben. Excellent play for his first match out. |
All, I can only apologise for the poor opposition, When i contacted UPR they seemed like a very well organised unit. The poor organisation from their side was appalling. The sides were a complete mismatch which is one thing i make sure i try to avoid when asking other teams for fixtures, He ensured me they would give us a game. The Ref situation, Alan had said he would ref the match, Only to be told by UPR that they would do it, Within two minutes he had left the pitch and left the kids to get on with it, When Alan tried to help again that was rejected. I WILL BUY MYSELF A WHISTLE AND WATCH FOR THE NEXT ONE !!!
ReplyDeleteHowever that said maybe Its not all about how badly organised they were, but testament to Stuart and us guys for how much organisation we try to put in for our teams.
ONWARDS AND UPWARDS TO THE FOREST GLADE U6's
Mick as I said to you yesterday you are doing a great job in getting the teams fixtures and the coach of UPR lead us to believe that we would have a game on our hands, the set up is by far the worst I have seen to date and we will defintely not be entering their tournament based on yesterday. I felt embrassed for the players and parents of UPR and if I was a parent I would want an answer from their coach regarding this as it was clearly communicated to them that we had played a number of games previously. It was not a good introduction to the world of football for those players, every team needs to start somewhere but yesterday was just embrassing.
DeleteOn the plus side as you have said shows that we have a good organised set up at FG which is down to the coaches and continued support of all our parents.
Don't worry the children love any game they can get. Every game is practice. The amount of fixtures to date has been great.
ReplyDeleteBeing asked to ref at an away game is poor on their side.
Keep up the good training sessions.