Game 1

Lewes Bridge Scorpions 2 5 Coldean Colts (U10)

First thing, apologies to all who arrived early as I had messed up the time on the site. If any consolation I was the first person there.

This was a great performance by the boys. In my opinion one of the best 'footballing' performances that I have witnessed. This team beat us at home but to this day I am scratching my head as to how that happened as we were by far the better team. We proved that today.

There was some beautiful passing and movement off and on the ball. Their keeper made a wonderful early save from Blain's curling shot. and we set our marker. We could have had more than the 5 but they battled hard in defence and their tall red haired winger was a handful for us, quick and strong he scored a wonderful, almost solo effort. But everyone stepped up and it is a measure of our confidence when we wre comfortable playing the ball back to Aston from defence and holding the ball up in attack and bringing in the on rushing attackers. The result of this being a great goal by Francis and another one that hit the bar. It was great to see us making that kind of space where Francis or Cass can come up from midfiled and have some time to have a crack at goal. Everyone played well it was a tremendous team effort and was probably nice for the boys to be back on a nice small pitch after the previous days efforts on the 11 a side.

Game 1

Lewes Bridge Scorpions 0 2 Coldean Colts (U10)

I did not see this match as Killian had an early game back in Brighton. I heard we played well here too. It is a great result and I believe Oliver was on the scoresheet twice, great stuff.

Big thanks to all at Lewes and all parents coaches and the boys for some great entertainment.

Coldean Colts 1 4 Mile Oak

This was a good friendly where we played three twenty minute games. The overall score is not particularly important. What is important is that we learn a bit about 11 a side football. There were some good performances out there but Mile Oak were quicker on the break and quicker to get out from the back to create the offside trap. Football is a very simple game but offside adds a little bit of complexity. We need to understand how we can use the offside trap to our advantage. This, of course, is a bit risky particularly if the forwards are quick. Think Thierry Henry (Incidentally, being Irish, I try to think of him as little as possible from his punching the ball into the Irish net and knocking Ireland out of the World Cup finals). However Henry was an expert at beating the offside trap. The defenders try to get out to move the line of defense as near the half way line as possible but Henry had the ability to just keep on side and with his lightning pace get beyond the defenders who were trying to create the trap. We need to get out from the back quick but be aware of the attackers. Not easy but we need to remind each other at the back to GET OUT when the ball has been cleared out of defence. The forwards also need to time their runs so that they stay onside until the ball is kicked to them and then move back quickly as the opposition defence moves up. This will come in time and if we understand it fully and use it it will be to our advantage. We will get caught sometimes but each time we do we should use the experience for the next game.

The boys will also have realise that the distances to cover are much greater than on a 7 aside pitch so we need to conserve our energy a bit more and to coin a well worn cliche 'let the ball do the work' i.e. accurate passing where the receiver can run on to a ball not have to stop and pick it up from behind him. We should also make use of pace where we can and use the wings etc.

Anyway that is enough of that. All of this will come in time and it is big learning curve but it is a fun one. Despite all the technical stuff the most important thing is that we are having fun, enjoying ourselves, yes wanting to win sure, but that is not as important as being out there doing our best and enjoying it.

Game 1 - Result

Coldean Colts 2 3 Peacehaven

Game 2 - Result

Coldean Colts 0 1 Peacehaven (Need an update on these scores as I cannot recall at this stage)

Game 1

Result - Coldean Colts 1 2 South Malling

Good game against the best team in the league. We did well as I recall it was one way traffic for a lot of the first half but we defended well and held them to a one goal lead. They scored an early one in the second half and we replied with one of our own. Cass got himself on the score sheet and overall it was a gutsy performance from the boys.

Game 2

Result - Coldean Colts 0 2 South Malling

Another good perfromance from team 2 two nil is a respectable result against South Malling. Well done to all.