HMH U10’s Lose Out In League

Jeremy Berg - Monday 5th 2008f May 2008

AJY U10 Red Division
HMH Red 1 Alyth Belsize Yellow 3; HMH Red 0 Alyth Belsize Yellow 2
HMH Green 0 Redbridge 4; HMH Green 2 Redbridge 3
Sunday, 4 May, 2008

“A lot of hard work went into this defeat”
(Malcolm Allison)

Mr Allison was one of the great thinkers on the game of football in the post-war period (I understand that his book “Soccer for thinkers” is one of the great footie books from the 1970s but I just can’t find a copy – can anyone help?), and one of the things he recognised was that hard work does not always pay dividends in football (not the most profound thinking ever, but still undoubtedly true!).

A prime example of unrewarded effort came in the form of the defeats of the two HMH teams striving for glory in the Under 10’s Red Division. Success for them had never seemed likely as Redbridge had led the League almost throughout the whole season, they had seemed to be the best team (although outscored by HMH Reds) and had played some of the best football.

Nevertheless a brilliant performance in torrential rain by the Reds had ensured a tense final day of the season with all three teams in with a theoretical chance of taking the title.

In the event (as is often the case) the team with the most points before play commenced (allowing for un-played games which will be declared draws in time) ended with the most points after the matches. However, the flat performances of the Reds and the Greens failed to do them justice and reflected weariness induced by a long season and late injuries to key players in either case.

In the 1pm kick-off, The Reds were thoroughly outplayed by an improving Alyth Yellow team and the Yellows simply handled the conditions at Burnt Oak better than the Reds who seemed to flag after taking a deserved 1-0 lead in the first half of game one, courtesy of top scorer Daniel Jacob.
After that the Reds were pegged back to 1-1 early in the second half and then the floodgates opened as Alyth added two more, winning 3-1 and then repeating the dose with a 2-0 win in game two. One parent commented: “we lost our shape”, but there was no shape to be lost as players wandered out of position with monotonous regularity, leaving solitary defenders stranded.

Amidst the gloom, there were glimpses of the Reds’ quality with some skilful running and dribbling from Daniel Jacob, some nifty footwork and passing from defender/midfielder Samuel Freedman, some determined enterprise from Matthew Gold (before he flagged badly late on), one or two timely interceptions from Josh Kenley who had just returned from injury, some solid defending from Alex Berg and even a penalty save (which will live long in the memory) from stand-in goalkeeper, Mr Personality, Benji Zeffertt.

However, the truth of the matter is that this was a banana skin of a fixture for a Red team which really needed two wins from two games; once they fell behind their heads dropped as they realized that their title hopes were slipping away. This realisation completely demoralised them so that the second game felt like a pointless exercise for them, and it showed.

At 3:30pm the Green team lined up against Redbridge faced with an identical task to the Reds, having to win two games to take the title. This prospect remained in view for about two minutes which was as long as it took Redbridge to score a vital goal after which, like the Reds before them, the Greens’ heads dropped. 1-0 swiftly became 4-0 and Redbridge were home and dry in their Division, despite some late attacks from the Greens when they hit the bar and forced the Redbridge goalkeeper to make a fingertip save over the bar.

In fairness to the Greens their performance in the second game was much improved and Jacob Lester, a recruit from the Blue team who is normally stationed in defence, proved his versatility by making a series of tremendous runs out of defence, narrowly failing to score twice, scoring once from open play, after a nifty one-two, and rounding things off with a late goal from a penalty. He was undoubtedly the Greens’ star performer on the day. Jeremy Ben-Nathan also went close to scoring once or twice.

However, this was too little, too late as Redbridge won 3-2, they had the points and the glory, leaving the Reds to finish in second place with the Greens third. A disappointing end, but congratulations for a great season to the Reds and the Greens.

Copyright Jeremy Berg Productions 2008