Eastbourne United U14s vs Heathfield & Horam U14s

That was a great game to watch and the result does not reflect the quality of the play.

We had heard a lot of bad press about the opposition and thankfully they never lived up to the reports and seemed to be coached fairly and played well. The weather was shocking early on but it cleared before the match started and the sun even came out during the match, so it ended up being quite nice.

We started off brilliantly and before we new it Lucas scored from a great Will assist and so we were 0-1 up within 2mins.

They stepped up following that and whilst the game was end to end and we had some chances they were definitely pressing us and were on the ascendancy. However, thanks to an instinctive and excellent save by Els we managed to hold onto the lead to the break.

We made a few changes during the break and played the start of the second half pretty much as we'd finished off the first half. We thought that they would come out stronger in the second half and this proved to be the case. At 40mins they were awarded and converted a rather dubious penalty. We were then given a penalty and somehow their goalie managed to keep it out. At 65mins they were awarded a second penalty which was again rather dubious and they again converted to lead 2-1.

Our play carried on in the same vein and with was end to end stuff. They had a player sin-binned and so we attempted to go all out and push the front and Els came on outfield, which was novel, but pushing forward will likely expose us at the back and unfortunately they managed to get through and score again and extended their lead to 3-1 and that was were it ended.

The result did not reflect the quality of our play and we could have won the match, and a draw would have probably been a fairer result. But we have a lot of positives to take from the game. Every player gave it everything and this was evident as you all looked exhausted at the end and I thank you for that. But we again played some great football, and if we keep moving and progressing the results will definitely come.

Once again we have played a team that on another day we could beat, so we should not be disappointed by the result and take the positives into the next game.

Thanks again to Jeff and Tim for managing the team and to Glen for running the line.

See you on Monday for training, then Thursday at Gover (for those attending) and a reminder that we have a cup game next Saturday at Tower.

Have a great rest of the weekend.

UTHH...