Under 7's.

Costa del Upholland

Our first game on a regulation size pitch and what a game it was. In the blistering heat of Upholland, our lads coped well with an experienced and well drilled Skemersdale oldboys outfit.

We've been to Skem on 2 occasions in the past and they've proved to be a quality team. Not forgetting they've been together for 2 years compared to shevy's 6 months.

The match started ominously with Skem taking an early lead despite the best efforts of an ever improving Defence of Tom Elstone and Jumpy. New goalkeeper Harry produced some tremendous saves that Coach Priestley would have been proud of but he couldn't get hold of a well struck shot from the Skem forward. In past friendlies that would have seen the floodgates open, but not this time. Shevy turned defence into attack with a surging break from Alex who 'smoked' the Skem defence and calmly stroked the ball into the bottom corner. That proved to be shevy's only goal of the game. A strong tackling midfield of Connor and Thomas Sixsmith couldn't quite get the ball to Centre forward Ben who was constantly dropping back to midfield to help his team mates out. A couple of goalmouth scrambles and a poor timed substitution saw Skem go 2-1 up. Jumpy made way for a terrier like display from our newest and youngest player Morgan but his constant chasing and harassing could not stop Skem going 3-1 up with a looping miskick that harry couldn't quite reach.

The second half saw a complete change of outfield personnel and another debutant in Josh Slater. Josh and Eddie chased everything in the middle of the park and they were helped by some big tackling and powerful running from Boyley. Eddie broke clear midway through the second half but he was denied by the Skem keeper. Again a defensive team of Jordan and Kai coped well with the Skem attack but a powerful high shot got the better of Harry. Jordan made way for tenacious Morgan to make his second appearance of the game but the team struggled to get quality ball to lone forward Conor who, like Ben in the first half, dropped back to midfield to help his team mates out. A low shot towards the end of the game proved to be the final goal for Skem.

5-1 was the final score but the lads did fantastically well and showed how far we've come since we played Aspull at the soccordome. All the lads deserve praise for this performance but i don't think anyone can argue with Harry as the choice for man of the match.