Under 12's. Home v Clayton Villa

  Result - Reddish North End 0 Clayton Villa 4

If I was a smoker I would be sitting here now puffing on a Cuban Havana cigar, one of those large originals, rolled on the thighs of a virgin! I am absolutely delighted with today’s performance, I am full of pride for every single player today, and these feelings will be shared by every parent and spectator from Reddish who was at today’s game.

Hang on, you might be thinking, Reddish lost 4-0. That’s true, but what a misleading scoreline that is – it in no way reflects a magnificent team performance against the division’s top side (and champions-elect), and we can come away from today really pleased with our efforts – again we have done something no-one else has managed against Clayton this season, namely not conceding a goal in a half. The fact that the Clayton manager gave his man-of-the-match award to his goalkeeper, and told me that their goalie had never been so busy all season, says it all.

Originally we should have played at North Reddish Park but the Council postponed all fixtures for this weekend. However Clayton (being under Manchester jurisdiction) were more than willing to host us and it was no bad thing to play them on a ground where we had some happy memories. The pitch was fine, the morning clear and still – in other words, perfect conditions for football. There will be a lot of other football managers & teams frustrated with SMBC this weekend and little wonder, it was an ill-advised decision to order a blanket postponement.

I talked with the boys beforehand about the need to match Clayton’s energy and to play with discipline. We discussed defensive tactics – last time here we conceded five goals from corners – and I set the boys a target of coming off the pitch with our goal difference still in the positive. We were plus 6 before kick off, but after 18 minutes we were down to plus 2 as Clayton swept into a 4-0 lead. One goal was due to a defensive lapse which was disappointing, but the other three were all superb strikes by one of the very accomplished Clayton players.

I was probably not alone in fearing the worst at this point, but, along with all the other parents, I kept encouraging the boys and urging them to keep their shape. And to their immense credit they kept trying to play. One superb burst by the tireless Callum almost resulted in a goal but it took a desperate brave last ditch dive by their goalie – who got a right whack in the process – to stop Sam from having an open net.

At half time I urged the boys to start at a high tempo and not concede early, but little did I imagine just what a superb performance they would produce! Clayton always possess a threat going forward, and they did hit the bar after being given an indirect free-kick in the area, but somehow we seemed more able to cope, and the efforts of the midfielders to support the defence certainly helped to break up play. Callum W was busy at times but didn’t have any difficult saves to make.

And gradually Reddish had more of the ball and started to press Clayton back. Sam was magnificent and worked really hard, and on another day would have had a couple of goals. Their keeper had to make two very acrobatic leaps to keep the ball out – he hurt his back doing so – and it took some other good tackling by Clayton to keep us at bay. You could sense the boys’ self-belief growing and when the whistle blew all the players got a big round of applause from genuinely impressed parents. We’d drawn the half 0-0 and with a bit of luck might have even won it, which would have been no mean feat. Several of the boys were out on their feet!

So the boys attained their target of a positive goal difference which looked extremely unlikely after such a disappointing start, and that should not be underestimated – it is a fantastic achievement! We didn’t concede anything from corners or dead balls, and had produced a performance that the whole Reddish club can be proud of. If we play like this in our remaining eight league games we will beat everybody – certainly today’s efforts would have won many other games. So come on boys – you have set the standard and now we need to keep our play at that level. You can do it!

Our thanks again to Clayton for assisting with the switch and being good hosts. They are to be congratulated on their win today, and hopefully our cup final against them in April will be another watchable, close game.

Next week we travel to Droylsden to take on Medlock Rangers.

Scorers :

Man Of The Match : Callum B (with Sam a very close runner-up!)