Stevenage Kick Off New Season

We began our new District season with the popular St Albans District Festival, where eight teams were taking part across two groups. We began the very warm morning with a game against hosts St Albans Yellows, and although we had to soak up a little bit of pressure in the early stages, we looked comfortable until a wayward pass went straight to their striker who did well to find the net from outside the box. But we didn't panic, and we worked out way back into the short game (2 x 9 mins) in the second period and levelled when the quick-thinking Noah released a long ball that evaded the last line of St Albans defence and was bouncing around until Nathaniel Kundrik calmly lobbed the ball over the head of the advancing keeper to make it 1-1.

In our second game against London Borough of Brent we were simply too strong. We must've hit the post/crossbar at least three times in this game, and after one effort against the post from Max Douglass the ball fell nicely to Joseph Lief who smashed the rebound off the crossbar and into the net for 1-0. We doubled the score when Tommy Harwood spotted an opportunity from a quick free-kick that released Albert McGregor and he raced into the box and scored from the left for 2-0.

Game three saw us facing a very good Dacorum team, but again I thought that we played really well. Noah twice released Nathaniel again, the two are building up an understanding already, but the first chance was on his left-side and just as I was expecting him to control it and switch feet he unleashed a beautiful left-footed strike into the net. Moments later the pair linked up again and this time Nathaniel smashed the ball home with his right foot to seal the game.

Our final game, as the boys began to tire in the heat, was against a very strong Wokingham team but the teams were quite evenly matched until we made a mess of playing out from a goal kick, which invited pressure and led to a foul inside the box. Wokingham gratefully accepted the gift from the spot to score the only goal of a tight game.

So overall, a very pleasing morning. We played some good stuff today, but we can also improve in other areas too as we look forward to our first league fixture.