Year three v Ashley Down, 7th March

This set of games should have been played just after Christmas but either rain, snow or plague (I can't actually remember which - it may have been a combination of all three) caused a postponement. So the sunshine of Saturday morning saw the Foxes travel all the way to Mueller Road and play some lovely football to draw three and lose one by the odd goal in five.

Both of the squads were under strict instruction to get their heads up and pass the ball (see the report for the Bishop Road game if you want to know why). Against all the odds the Foxes really tried to put this brand new idea into action. In the process they may have forgotten to put the usual effort into tackling but you can't have everything.

Ewan's team drew both of their games the first 1-1 (Barney scoring) and the second 3-3 (Barney again, Sam L and Jacob). In both games we gave away soft goals so there was the slight feeling of disappointment that we did not win both.

The second team were jointly managed by (the cool-headed) Dave T and (the virtual stranger after two weekends away and a couple of weekends with the year three girls) Andy. Both were astonished, staggered, knocked-sideways, etc, etc by some of the passing moves in the first half of the first game. Even Danny and Sonny were picking the right time to pass and the right to hold on to the ball. Our first goal was a wonder shot from the half way line by Danny, who then turned provider with a cool pass to Omar. Ashley Down muscled there way back into the game and again some sleepy defending allowed them to pull it back to 2-2. Special mention should go to Harry F who took a nasty knock in goal in the second half.

The second game was very exciting, the Foxes lost 3-2 but again tried to move the ball around. Ashley Down played with passion and pace and took a three - one lead, their second and third goals resulting from some soft tackling. As usual, however, the Foxes never gave up and a great shot from Danny resulted in Omar scoring from a parried save. Danny then scored again, Omar hit the post and several goal mouth scrambles could have led to an equaliser.

Although the coaches were disappointed not to win at least one of the games we were really pleased with the display of passing and movement. Now if we can only get the team to do that and that tackling-thing we should be ok.