Last Saturday was our final game in the South West Youth Alliance League and we went down 4-3 to Swindon Town, despite leading three times.
We played some excellent football at times and created numerous other chances that unfortunately we didn't capitalise on.
Jamie Goodwin scored the first with an exquisite lob over the keeper, Danny Reynolds the second from a free-kick and then Adam Page midway through the second half.
Jamie in particular was a real threat for the whole game and used his movement and pace to good effect. He has struggled with injury at times this season so it was great to see something of the 'Goodie' we know. Let's hope he can keep this up until the end of the season.
Swindon disappointingly scored from three set plays, all the second phase of the play, so we had dealt with the first ball in but not the next. Situations that can often undo more experienced players and teams than us, who feel they have dealt with the initial danger, only for a lack of concentration and communication to undermine them.
So once again it was a good performance, but no result. We lost three out of the last four games in this part of the season to disappointingly just miss out on a top half finish and could quite easily have won all four. We now join with the South East section of the Youth Alliance to see out the remainder of the season so there will be some different fixtures for us to enjoy from now on. We have a small break now with the next set of games starting in February.
Over the next few weeks the scholars will be undergoing media training under the expert guidance of our very own Jon Palmer. This will form part of their NVQ and a vital part in any modern day footballers armoury, with the ever increasing scrutiny and access on players.
To go inline with this the League Football Education will provide a social media workshop on the plusses and minuses of Facebook, Twitter etc. The LFE really have a big impact on the boys these days as they have also provided us with a drugs and alcohol workshop with Andrew Jordan (son of Joe) from Sporting Chance and a Racism and Equality workshop with Troy Townsend (father of Andros).
These were two great afternoons we had with these guys and were of real benefit to the lads and something they can take with them for the rest of their lives.