Today the boys were asked to produce an individual effort that would give other players motivation to do the same. They were asked to defend in numbers so we changed the formation to 1 in defence and 3 in midfield. All of the midfielders had the opportunity to move forward as long as they were willing to make it back behind the ball to defend.
They took the objective and instruction onboard straight away as Darren was rewarded with the opener with a well executed side foot finish. They were talking well when it came to marking for a throw in organising themselves with discussion. Energy levels were high and this proved as they gave an enthralling and high intensity first half.
At half time they were able to identify that defending in numbers was quicker and easier to gain possession back and gave you more passing options when in possession. We then decided to move back to a 1-2-1 formation for the second half. In the second half they then took it upon themselves to carry on the defending in numbers as we were finding the striker would cover the midfield when being over-run in the middle of the pitch. (Was very nice to see) but then making their way back to their attacking position.

At the end of the game they all had big smiles on their faces and were very happy with their own individual and team performances identifying the importance of defending together as well as passing and moving when on the attack.

Player of the match goes to Darren, Scored a very well placed goal, positioning was perfect all game and found some very accurate and key through balls to the striker which created chances.

Effort award goes to Cole, winning the majority of his tackles, and never did he stop running which gave the team a big lift in motivation.