This was a great opportunity to open the season up against a Midgets 1 team containing two particular star players. As ever in these early term fixtures, the team is still to settle: selection and positional decisions are in their infancy. The first ten minutes of the game saw a surprising flurry of chances come to the Radley team, with an early short corner not quite being struck as we’d planned, and a two open-play chances that didn’t find the finishing touch. The tide began to turn as their outstanding central midfielder kept the ball in incredibly close control on his stick, and it was - perhaps - only a matter of time - however well our midfield and defence contained him, until he found himself in the D and drew a foul. This came at around fifteen minutes in and the two players combined on a straightforwardly but well-hit short corner move and the first goal. Their second was less inevitable, though, and followed one of many fine saves from our Radley keeper, which was deflected wide to be met by a Lord Wandsworth stick, taking the goal impressively with limited reaction time.

At 2-0 down twenty-minutes in and their best players purring, it would not have been unimaginable for the game to run away from Radley, but the tenacity with which they stuck to their task was admirable, with particular dedication to the cause in central midfield. It was not a complete team performance - there is certainly work to do in front of goal when the opportunities do come - but there were very many positives. To contain this side to two goals, and the best player on the field to not scoring himself across the forty-minutes or so that he played in the match was a considerable feather in this Midgets 2 side’s cap.

We look forward to our next opportunity to play, to score, and to impose our own pace and style on the game a little more than we were able to today.

Thanks to parents for a very good turn-out for this first outing of the term.