Under 8s impress at llandudno

Fantastic squad display in freezing conditions

This morning the under 8s travelled to a very chilly and windy Llandudno for our academy friendly fixture. Llandudno is a fantastic academy and always have a tough test against them, which we enjoy.
Game kicked off and dudno were very lively from the start, putting us under pressure at the back. Taylor Williams and louie Gilbert looked very comfortable and composed at the back for us. midway through the 1st quarter we started getting some width down the sides and were starting to cause some problems for dudno but our shots were weak and never caused the keeper any problems. Just before the break a double from lennon young gave us a 2-0 lead going into half time. 2nd quarter we made a few changes and the boys looked very good in there shape and were causing allsorts of problems for the dudno defence. jayden hughes put some great balls through to our forwards who again failed to convert theres chances when called upon. As always dudno never gave up fighting and showed great spirit in trying to play football the right way. our boys kept on putting pressure on the defence and we broke there defence again when jayden hughes picked the ball up in midfield and drove at the defence, he went past a couple of players to make no mistake with his powerful shot into the the bottom corner of the net. 2 mins later hughes took a in swinging corner only to deflect off a dudno player into his own net to make it 4-0 before the interval.
3rd quarter and this was Llandudno's best period. They come out all guns firing and really got at us. The wind picked up and was in dudno's favour but we still needed to battle. Our forwards switched off not closing down from the front and we had a shakey 10 min spell conceding 3 goals and the score now was 4-3 to nomads. After that little bad patch our boys got themselves together and it seemed to spur our boys on more. Taylor Williams had a shot that went narrowly went past the post. dan McLaughlin had a chance but his shot was weak with his weaker left foot. we had plenty of chances but were failing infront of goal, also have to give Llandudno for there defending at times was superb.
4th quarter, changed the formation and I had a good chat with the boys at half time and told them to get the ball wide an forward as quick as possible and don't be afraid to shoot when having the opportunity. the boys done exactly that. The boys were superb, attack after attack and dudno didn't have an anwer to our quick counter attacking football another 2 goals from lennon young got his tally to 4 for the day after some good finishing, Daniel mclaughlin cooly slotted the ball home to get a deserved goal and Alfie Griffiths scored 2. Llandudno looked deflated and the boys looked freezing, but they showed great character and kept on trying and found the net again with good low drive that come off the post and went in, our goalkeeper looked absolutely freezing and could hardly move at this stage. A chance right on the full time whistle when lennon young went in for a tackle, the dudno defender got there before him to clear away, only to cannon back off youngs knee and it flew into the bottom corner, but the final whistle had already gone. But it was great determination from lennon and was the star player of the match with some superb goals.

Overall I thought we played really well in stages. Give a lot of credit to Llandudno who play and develop there players the right way. Once again cold conditions played its part as I have seen Llandudno play better but they never give up. Well done to paul head coach up there at Llandudno u8s who has done a great job with his squad