A Hard Day in the Office

Today an under strength Gosport under10 team braved a chilly morning for Haslemere’s minifest. With only 5 players today we were supported by some amazing girls from the Haslemere teams who were just outstanding, had fun and really put in a great job playing for us today.
With only 4 games today due to fewer teams entered into the Haslemere minifest they were keen to have a good day after the success at the last minifest in Fareham.
The first 2 games were against Petersfield A and then Haslemere girls A squad. We had the same 3 girls from Haslemere for these games who gelled with the Gosport squad well, seamlessly fitting in and also scoring 5 of Gosport’s goals in these 2 games (4 being against their own team). Lucy and Alex both played really well at the back, not allowing anyone through in the first 2 games, allowing William, Nathan and Jacob to put unrelenting pressure onto Petersfield and then Haslemere, all 3 of them scoring and adding another 8 goals to the Gosport tally.
The 3rd game was a much tougher match and was a true ‘hard day in the office’, with every decision going against Gosport. Havant girls were relentless and although many attempts to break through their defence, they were a solid wall frustrating the Gosport attack. Havant relied on a few probing long balls through to their lone high attacker who managed to get on one of the end of those balls and that was all she sang. Havant 1, Gosport 0.
I always believe it helps our under 10’s to lose on the odd occasion as it supports their development and to also realise they are not invincible, which is a very valuable lesson......but, keen to get back to winning form they took on board all of their learnings from the Havant game and went into the toughest game of the day against Portsmouth A’s.
An incredibly hard fought match which could have gone either way with Portsmouth putting huge pressure on the Gosport midfield and defence but they all held strong and put in as good as they were getting. A super 1-2 between William and Nathan created an opening for Jacob to finish giving Gosport the only goal of an amazing game which was a joy to watch.
All in all a great day with lessons taken onboard, the Gosport under 10’s continue to develop and go from strength to strength.
We all look forward to the next minifest in Portsmouth.

Results:
Gosport (6) - Petersfield A (0)
Gosport (7) - Haslemere girls A (0)
Gosport (0) - Havant A (1)
Gosport (1) - Portsmouth A (0)
Scorers:
Nathan - 2
Evie (Haslemere) - 1
William - 1
Jacob - 6
Martha (Haslemere) - 4