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Under 12's Blue - Team News
They think its all over........................
Reflections on season 1.
Well it’s the end of my first season in charge and what a season its been, there was times when I couldn’t see light at the end of the tunnel, times when I thought is it worth it and times when I’ve thought we could really go places with the players we had plus a bit more improvement.
It seems a long long time ago when we played that game at Buckley Hill and lost by a rugby score (granted it was against under 12s) I think only Ben Lloyd, James Morris, Louis Hayden and Dylan Simpson remain from the side that night while Luke was away on holiday at the time.
Its no secret that we found it tough at the start of the season results were what I expected and I set a target of finishing 10th from 11 as the goal for the first half season.
We made two good additions in Connor Haigh and Steven Shaw which added more depth to the squad we had assembled and a few games later we were given a huge boost when we managed to sign Ryan McGee, Dylan Fairfield and Owen Forrester, It wasn’t just that they were three good players but three players who had played in teams before week in week out they settled in nicely along with the top performances of Luke Rohr, Dylan Simpson and Ben Lloyd.
The first half of the season ended with us finishing 8th from 11 so slightly better than what I had predicted, the highlight of the pre Christmas games was probably the 9-0 victory over Churchtown.
The second part of the season began with terrible news when I received a call telling me that Luke Rohr had broken his collar bone, this was a huge blow as Luke had been superb for the first half of the season sometimes playing up front on his own and not always getting the goals his play deserved, we did manage to get another striker in and we touched lucky with Jude Tomkins who joined us, Jude settled in quickly its not easy coming into a new team when you don’t know any of the lads especially when all the others had been together for four months or so.
There wasn’t too much action in January with the frosty weather but the biggest boost we got was adding Matthew Snowden and Jack Johnson to the ranks, Jack really hit the ground running and it was important that he did especially as Luke was still short of returning to fitnes.
We started to show big signs that we might have a good squad together here another big plus was the form of Steven Shaw on the right of midfield who’s performances from the turn of the year played a big part in our change of results, George in goal was looking like the keeper we knew he could be I wouldn’t swap him for any other keeper in the league and It was pleasing to see the improvment from the likes of Dylan Marr and James Morris, the downside to that is some boys had not played as much as they would have hoped but the three boys who suffered most in by not starting as much in Mikey, Jack and Louis have never once moaned to me and continued to work hard in training.
We were now beating the sides who were in and around us pre Christmas and the best result came in March when we inflicted the only defeat on the eventual league winners Crosby Stuart with a deserved 2-1 victory.
We had won one and lost one of our two shield games meaning we would face Marina Tigers in the semi final and we progressed to the final after a 5-0 win, our league form remained decent we lost only two games out of seven winning the other four and drawing one.
A decent season to a good season now depended on the Shield final were we met Liverpool North and the lads triumphed on the night with a 4-1 victory and captain Ben Lloyd lifted what hopefully was our first of many trophies.
I know there is still work to do if we want to catch the likes of Active, TMS and Marina Lions but with one or two additions for next season and an improvement from the current group I’m confident we will at least be up there challenging the better sides.
Id personally like to thank both Ste Matthews and Brendan McGee for the input, efforts and hard work through the season, id like to thank Anita for all her efforts in providing us with equipment and taking on the roll of physio, photographer, web designer any anything else I ask of her and of all the parents for their support through the season, obviously you all have your own boys interests at heart but the support you have all given the rest of the lads has been fantastic and very much appreciated.
Finally id like to thank the 17 lads in the current squad and the four or five boys who started the season with us but never finished it for their efforts, none of you have given me a single bit of grief (which will probably shock some of the parents)and its been a plessure working along side them I’ve really enjoyed my first season at Maghull.
I hope to see you all on May 26th at the home of Maghull FC for the presentation.
NEIL
It seems a long long time ago when we played that game at Buckley Hill and lost by a rugby score (granted it was against under 12s) I think only Ben Lloyd, James Morris, Louis Hayden and Dylan Simpson remain from the side that night while Luke was away on holiday at the time.
Its no secret that we found it tough at the start of the season results were what I expected and I set a target of finishing 10th from 11 as the goal for the first half season.
We made two good additions in Connor Haigh and Steven Shaw which added more depth to the squad we had assembled and a few games later we were given a huge boost when we managed to sign Ryan McGee, Dylan Fairfield and Owen Forrester, It wasn’t just that they were three good players but three players who had played in teams before week in week out they settled in nicely along with the top performances of Luke Rohr, Dylan Simpson and Ben Lloyd.
The first half of the season ended with us finishing 8th from 11 so slightly better than what I had predicted, the highlight of the pre Christmas games was probably the 9-0 victory over Churchtown.
The second part of the season began with terrible news when I received a call telling me that Luke Rohr had broken his collar bone, this was a huge blow as Luke had been superb for the first half of the season sometimes playing up front on his own and not always getting the goals his play deserved, we did manage to get another striker in and we touched lucky with Jude Tomkins who joined us, Jude settled in quickly its not easy coming into a new team when you don’t know any of the lads especially when all the others had been together for four months or so.
There wasn’t too much action in January with the frosty weather but the biggest boost we got was adding Matthew Snowden and Jack Johnson to the ranks, Jack really hit the ground running and it was important that he did especially as Luke was still short of returning to fitnes.
We started to show big signs that we might have a good squad together here another big plus was the form of Steven Shaw on the right of midfield who’s performances from the turn of the year played a big part in our change of results, George in goal was looking like the keeper we knew he could be I wouldn’t swap him for any other keeper in the league and It was pleasing to see the improvment from the likes of Dylan Marr and James Morris, the downside to that is some boys had not played as much as they would have hoped but the three boys who suffered most in by not starting as much in Mikey, Jack and Louis have never once moaned to me and continued to work hard in training.
We were now beating the sides who were in and around us pre Christmas and the best result came in March when we inflicted the only defeat on the eventual league winners Crosby Stuart with a deserved 2-1 victory.
We had won one and lost one of our two shield games meaning we would face Marina Tigers in the semi final and we progressed to the final after a 5-0 win, our league form remained decent we lost only two games out of seven winning the other four and drawing one.
A decent season to a good season now depended on the Shield final were we met Liverpool North and the lads triumphed on the night with a 4-1 victory and captain Ben Lloyd lifted what hopefully was our first of many trophies.
I know there is still work to do if we want to catch the likes of Active, TMS and Marina Lions but with one or two additions for next season and an improvement from the current group I’m confident we will at least be up there challenging the better sides.
Id personally like to thank both Ste Matthews and Brendan McGee for the input, efforts and hard work through the season, id like to thank Anita for all her efforts in providing us with equipment and taking on the roll of physio, photographer, web designer any anything else I ask of her and of all the parents for their support through the season, obviously you all have your own boys interests at heart but the support you have all given the rest of the lads has been fantastic and very much appreciated.
Finally id like to thank the 17 lads in the current squad and the four or five boys who started the season with us but never finished it for their efforts, none of you have given me a single bit of grief (which will probably shock some of the parents)and its been a plessure working along side them I’ve really enjoyed my first season at Maghull.
I hope to see you all on May 26th at the home of Maghull FC for the presentation.
NEIL
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