Waterlooville Boys Blog. Episode 2 – So it begins.

It would appear there’s a lot of catching up to do.

With all the recent talk about the lack of UEFA qualified coaches in England, and the national team dropping to it’s lowest ranking in 12 years, here at Waterlooville we hope to shine bright in what is seemingly a bleak era for English football.

The last time one of these was completed the boys were heading off for their summer holidays, forgetting about the intense pre-season, that would soon be forthcoming their way.

The club had it’s anniversary presentation at the end of July, which offered the boys a good opportunity to meet up and have some fun, I’m pretty sure I witnessed a few of the parents having a good time too. Awards are always the highlight of the event, you can tell from the way their cute faces light up like a Chinese lantern when they hear their name.

The winners were: Most improved player – Charlie Oliver
Manager’s player – Christian Sim
Player’s player – Harvey Fry

The first award was simple; Charlie joined the boys back in the summer of 2012, after watching us training. He fitted in well, and has become one of the jokers of the group. Initially he was frustrated with himself for not doing the things his brain wanted him to. This was clear to see and Charlie really dug deep and has trained very hard in his own time, to catch up with some of his teammates. His effort is second to none and he is a completely different player to what he was a year ago. This is a credit to himself, as it was so easy to be one of many players that have come and left in a couple of weeks. He has fully deserved this award and progressed the best in the last 12 months.

This brings me onto the manager’s player. Like Charlie, Christian joined around the same time after watching us train. Christian is very mature for his age and has an instant football brain, understanding just about everything you tell him, and then putting it into practice. The boy became a natural leader soon after joining, and was given the captains armband in recognition of his tireless efforts. Notably, his behaviour and attitude to work is second to none. The boys already look up to him, calling him captain.

The first two awards are great, but it’s the latter that most should be craving for. That’s the award chosen by the team. I always felt it mattered more what my teammates thought of me rather than the manager. Nath was sneaky in the way he asked the boys; they didn’t even know what was going on. Which is the best way when the boys are that young we feel. The skilful Harvey was eventually a clear winner having 5 or 6 more votes than anyone else.

The team has come back from the layoff and been hit with the fierce pre-season regime we feel is required in order to hit the ground running. To help with the cause we’ve pulled in coach Jon Derwin, someone close to me and Nathan, and defensively, is technically sound. We hope he can help plug the dike in defence, with some improvements already being seen.

Another two players have joined the ranks during pre-season, Charlie Thomas and more recently Brandon Kelly. Both possess a lot of raw potential, which needs to be nurtured and matured.

The pair seem particularly attacking minded, which helps bolster our previously limited attacking options. Charlie is a complete forward with a physical presence, and no fear to chase every ball. The power gained from his momentum can be explosive and is something we will look to use. Brandon is more technically gifted, with a rifling right foot in the artillery. He also has that get up and go attitude, reminiscent of a young Wayne Rooney, chasing everything down. All of our strikers now have different qualities, which is crucial for changing style if things aren’t going our way.

With the season around the corner we thought it best to get the boys some match practise in preparation for the new campaign. The boys were beaten in their first friendly 4 –3 as Hayling St. Andrews snatched a fortunate victory. The result should have been ours really, Daniel Baine’s free kick was missed crossing the line by the referee, so too was the hand ball, which would of gifted a deserved penalty to the village. The boys came close to equalising late on with Charlie Thomas crashing a volley off the cross-bar, and Sterling’s long range effort whistling past the post.

Despite the loss, the team’s second half performance was massively inspiring after being 2-0 down at half time. Harvey’s work in midfield was a joy to watch, the little man got himself two goals with the first being a little bit special. Nathan Best also got himself on the score sheet, capitalising on a defensive error and tapping home from close range. A stellar performance from Sterling at the back was also a reminder of what he can offer the side.

Despite being pleased with the boys overall performance, the issue we now face is how to motivate the players to play for the full match. Why does it take them to be 2-0 down staring defeat in the face, to dig deep and give 100% to the cause.

I guess that’s one of the secrets of coaching.

The second friendly was against one of the many Purbrook sides in our area, as Nath calls them. The boys bounced back with an emphatic performance, winning the game 3-2. Much thanks was owed to Harvey who bagged himself a hat-trick, thanks to his last minute winner.

The result was well deserved but the contest should have been decided by half time, with the village playing some outstanding attacking football. Joe’s vision was immense; his hat-trick of assists (the last being the pick of the bunch) was a testimony to his performance. It’s getting to the stage now where he doesn’t look, he just knows someone’s there.

There were brief moments when the side switched off, which coincidentally is when we conceded cheaply. Allowing Purbrook back into the match at 2-2. The defensive frailties were quickly amended with Waterlooville back on the attack, and Harvey’s last minute winner, slapping a smile on everyone’s face for the trip home.

The result gave the boys their first look at the new home ground, (which we plan to make a tough place for teams to visit) but also provided a confidence boost before the first game of the season. We know the boys are good enough to win matches, they just need to believe it themselves now.

The team’s back in training fulltime, with the season kicking off this weekend. We’ve been working on the defence and in particular it’s distribution when in control of the ball. Building that connection between defence and midfield is crucial to the way we want the team to play.

Hopefully we’ll start to see the hard work come together this weekend when the season kicks off against FOSPS YFC this Saturday. It will be the boys first appearance in a league competition, which we hope they will go on to dominate (hopefully).

Because the boys are currently playing under 9’s football it is still classed as mini-soccer, and therefore ‘uncompetitive’. Anyone who has played football will tell you there is no such thing as uncompetitive football. To all the parents on the side-lines in thermals, and the boys aged between 8-9 who are available to play on Tuesdays and Saturdays, this is as competitive as it gets.

Our main target for the end of the season however is to get the boys to understand what is meant by team effort. Learning how to play for each other, and to understand that it does not matter who scores the goals as long as we score as a team. This, we hope will bring in the results. After spending so much time with them it’s easy to forget their young and they all want to score the goals. But if we can get them to understand that the name on the front of the shirt is worth ten times the one on the back, we will have made progress.

Other than that it should be important to note that with the two new arrivals we currently have 12 players on the books, with only ten places available for match day. Making it ever more crucial that players turn up to training with the right attitude, work hard, and show commitment to the team, with a willing to listen and learn. It’s not nice leaving anyone out but with the options we now have we can afford to be choosey (for the first time).

We travel to Swanmore for the first league encounter of the season. Little is known about our acronym opponents, so we’re relying on a stern village performance to ensure three points. From here, I’m sure many more problems will be thrown into our direction; however, I plan to let the football do the rest of the talking

Over and out.