Match Report New Mills Juniors U7s vs Bramhall North 75 Red Lions U7s 18/01/24

Happy New Year from the mini-millers U7s with more than a month since our last game thanks to 2 cancelled games and the festive break. The U7s were chomping at the bit to get back to their football.  We saw this in our first training session of the year this week as our team loved getting back to playing getting back onto the pitch together.  

This week up against familiar opponents, we spoke with team about getting back used to playing again and most importantly, having fun and enjoying their football.  

It was evident they did from the smiles from minute one to the end.  

We would be one player short this week, with ‘safe hands’ Kingsley away for the week.  

Elliott took his turn as captain this week which meant he would take the gloves for the first half, with Kit taking the gloves for the second half.  

Alistair would start on the right with Leo at centre back and JJ left back.  Lily and Logan would play through the middle with Thomas and Kit starting on the bench to begin with but ready to come on and make a difference.  

The game started with both teams blowing the new year cobwebs away with some nice passing play.  Leo was solid as ever at the back and trying to dictate the game playing passes through to Lily and Logan.  Lily was combative as ever, putting pressure on the opponents and winning the ball high up the field.  She was supported by JJ who was full of running on the left but what was great to see this week was his battling and using his body and arms to hold other players off while he looked for a pass.  

Logan was full of running and made sure he got his shots away, getting himself a couple of goals as well thanks to some powerful efforts.  

Alistair was full of running on the right as well as he supported every attack really well, giving the team width and shouting for the ball.  Great work Alistair for seeing where the space was as we had worked on in training this week.  

When our game changers came on Kit swapped in for Leo at centre back with Thomas coming in for JJ on the left.  What game-changers they were, Kit was making the most of his time in the game stopping each attack and playing some great passes through and Thomas was on fire on the left.  Not only was he tackling everything, he supported attacks well and managed to get a number of shots away, unfortunately he didn’t get a goal but his best effort cannoned off the post.  So unlucky Thomas, that first goal is coming, keep going.  

Lily was getting her shots away as well and managed to fire a well-timed effort into the bottom corner.

Half-time came and after a take on of fluids and encouragement to keep up the great effort, the second half continued like the first with Kit now taking the gloves and Elliott coming on up front.  

Logan moved out to the right so Alistair could have his break with Leo coming back into defence.  In the second half an invigorated opponent made it trickier for the mini-millers but they stood tall, Leo managing to get his name on the scoresheet as well as Elliott netting a brace.  Alistair and Thomas were both getting their shots away but the keeper managed to make some great saves.  What was most pleasing to see during the game was a superb team working together and getting back into their love of the beautiful game.  The whole team worked hard through the match in all aspects of their game and the smiles at the end of the match were great to see from both sets of players.

A great team performance, well done mini-millers!

⚽️🖤💛⚽️

#upthemillers

#withyouharrylad