Boys' U16A v Shrewsbury

Date: Saturday 5th December

Venue:

Away. Leave 11.40 am

Team:

Result:

Shrewsbury 12 - 2 Repton

Match Report:

It was the great American author Kurt Vonnegut Jr. who observed that 'there is nothing intelligent to say about a massacre', and for the first time I fully understand what he meant. Because this really was a massacre, and 'reviewing' it will not help in any way to make sense of why we failed so abysmally to compete.

The facts, then: the opening 8 minutes were even, with both teams pressing hard and clearly keen to win. McEnery made a couple of probing runs on the right wing, and we might have gone ahead had the final pass to Jopson been reachable. Instead, it was Shrewsbury who scored first, after poor marking from our centre-backs. Three minutes later, however, we were back on even terms, a distance shot from Chandler floating past their helpless 'keeper. Frustratingly (for it was not the first time this season, or even the second), we conceded again a minute later, the defence overcommitting in the tackle and allowing the opposition to storm the box with greater numbers.

The killer blow was on the quarter-hour: a clumsy (and unnecessary) challenge in our area resulted in a penalty, and we were 3-1 down and shell-shocked, allowing the 4th and 5th goals to roll in with the minimum of fight. 5-1 down on 20 minutes seems incredible - but in fact all six goals had been scored in a twelve-minute period!

Thereafter, we played better, and the scores remained the same for the remaining 20 minutes of the first half. However, 4 minutes into the re-start they scored again, dashing our faint hopes of a comeback. To our credit, we kept fighting for the next quarter of an hour, before another 9-minute blitz saw goals 7, 8, 9 and 10 go in, three of which were due once again to suicidal defending, and the other was just watched by Carr as it found the corner of his net. We all thought it was going wide, even the striker who scored.

Another brief, if toothless, fightback followed, before they scored their last two goals. That Chaffey managed to pull back a "consolation" (yes, ironically meant...) with three minutes to go is credit to his excellent performance and never-say-die attitude throughout the match, but makes no real difference to the fact that we were truly humbled in this game.

It is fair to say, then, that Shrewsbury were a much, much better football team on this occasion, not just in terms of skills, but also in their understanding of how to dominate a match, such those little nudges in mid-air 50-50s that meant they always won the aerial ball. We were not just too unskilful in this game; we were too naive and "nice".

So, the season ended not exactly in the way we wanted, and these players need to examine their individual performances and improve if they are to play for the 1st or 2nd XIs in seasons to come.

A "man of the match" award is inappropriate in the circumstances, but McEnery and Chaffey can hold their heads high, while the rest (me included) hang ours in shame.

JMJH

Goals: Chandler (11), Chaffey (77)