Wymondham Town United Youth Football Club

29 April 2007 Challenge Cup Photos by Jon White

If any game this season had to be won, it was this one: United Under 11s playing the Lizards Under 11s for the Challenge Cup. As I told the lads beforehand, losing was not an option.

As a sweetener, it was ‘accidentally’ mentioned during the pre-match briefing that players should make sure their parents knew that they would be paying £5 for every goal scored and £20 for a hat-trick!

Talking of the parents, both teams had excellent and good-humoured support from the boys’ families, that humour being put to the test given the decibel levels of the coaches’ yelling from the sidelines!

Fortunately, and despite our top scorer this season being away, the lads were up to the challenge and played to win from kick-off.

The Lizards were unfortunate to put the ball into their own net early on from a Nick Parker corner, but we were able to show we could score for ourselves, with midfielder Joseph Bush putting one away for our second goal.

After a couple of close calls, Nick scored our third before half time.

Coming out after half time, it was important that we got the first goal or risk losing the advantage and maybe even the match. The revitalised Lizards came very close to scoring and this was a wake-up call to the boys who began an onslaught with good attacking moves from Jack Morris, Henry Leather, Matt Elvin (striking the woodwork), Nick Parker and Joseph Bush before Dan Brindle was rewarded with our fourth goal.

The Lizards never gave up and a nice move in particular was rewarded with a goal from Harrison Cheal-Ferris to make the final score United 4, Lizards 1.

United Captain Jack Morris received the Challenge Cup from the Lizards’ Will Morley; the cup will now spend some time at each player’s house until next April when the Lizards will try to regain the trophy from us.

Click to enlarge photo

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Wymondham -v- Drayton

Result: 0-7 Loss
0-5 Halftime

Goalscorers: None.

Wymondham Player of the Match: Dan Brindle

One of the worst performances of the season from the boys, sadly…

Thanks again to Roy Parker for running the line for us.

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Wymondham -v- Spixworth

Result: 2-3 Loss
1-2 Halftime

Goalscorers: Matthew Elvin, Henry Leather

Wymondham Player of the Match: Zack Harvey

One of the best performances of the season from the boys: we were unlucky not to come out winners, with other near misses from Jack Morris, Matthew Elvin and Nicholas Parker and excellent play from everyone on the team.

Thanks again to Michael Elvin for running the line for us.

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Wymondham -v- Thorpe

Result: 1-7 Loss
0-7 Halftime

Goalscorer: Nick Parker

Wymondham Player of the Match: Joshua Mellor

Our first home match to be played at Kett’s Park after a long absence thanks to the recent weather issues; the day started off dry and sunny but a tad breezy … OK, it was blowing a gale!

A definite game of two halves: the first half we battled into the wind and at times hail and snow but didn’t make sufficient tackles or any real use of the ball and we left a gaping chasm in midfield that was capitalised on by Thorpe.

7-0 to Thorpe at half time.

The second half was completely different and was won by Wymondham 1-0. Lots of good moves, good tackles and with the advantage of the wind, we were unlucky not to have scored more with shots from Zack Harvey and Henry Leather coming close and Nick Parker heading over the bar from another fine corner from Dan Brindle. Indeed, that was the pairing that got together to score our goal: a corner from Dan that Nick managed to hustle over the line to gain our consoltation goal.

All we need to do is develop and maintain some consistency in our play.

Thanks again to Michael Elvin for running the line for us.

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Wymondham -v- Norman

Result: 2-5 Loss
1-3 Halftime

Goalscorers: Matthew Plater

Wymondham Player of the Match: Louis Hyett

Our first ‘home’ match to be played at Wymondham High School was after a long absence thanks to the recent weather issues. It couldn’t have been more different today with a bright and warm spring day to the extent that my face caught the sun, it seems.

Despite some rustiness in our team play, everyone played really well today and the result doesn’t really reflect the effort in what was at times a slightly physical match.

The game was marred, though, by a couple of incidents post-match. In the first, one of the Norman players deliberately scratched the hand of one of our players when the teams were shaking hands in what should have been a display of sportsmanlike behaviour. So I had a word with the Norman Coach and left the matter at that.

When it was just Alex, me, Joseph and Jack left, we then started collecting the corner flags at which point a small group of the Norman players, who were kicking some balls about in one of the goals, started verbally abusing one of the Wymondham players within my earshot. It’s not acceptable to me to have our players do this and likewise I don’t expect that behaviour from visiting players. I shall therefore be taking this up officially with the League.

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Dereham -v- Wymondham

Result: 7-1 Loss
2-1 Halftime

Goalscorer: Matt Elvin

Wymondham Player of the Match: Josh Mellor

Although the boys all played a good game that at half time could have gone either way, we allowed Dereham to get the better of us in the second half. Some excellent individual and team performances all around though. Just compare the result with the score last time…

Well done Wymondham.

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Poringland -v- Wymondham

Result: 9-4 Loss
4-1 Halftime

Goalscorers: Nick Parker (x2, incl pen.), Matt Plater (x2)

Wymondham Player of the Match: Joseph Bush

Although the boys all played a great game, we allowed Poringland to punish the mistakes we made which meant we lost. Some excellent individual and team performances all around on a very cold and misty day.

Great effort by all!

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Rocklands -v- Wymondham

Result: 2-4 Win
1-1 Halftime

Goalscorers: Mellor, Plater, Plater, Parker

Wymondham Player of the Match: Matt Plater

Get in there!

Well, what a difference a fortnight makes. It just goes to prove what I said to the boys before the match: if they wanted to lose the game, all they had to do was go out thinking they were going to lose. If they wanted to win the game, all they had to do was go out thinking they were going to win the game and so it was!

Positive and flowing almost from the start, we went a goal down early on, missed some halfway-decent scoring opportunities, were unlucky as well when Jack Morris hit the woodwork, but a great finish from Josh Mellor brought us back on even terms by halftime. The one-all score didn’t reflect the play though, as we looked the better side. Alex and my decision to keep the team unchanged for the second half was a direct result of the way the boys played in the first half and our positive talk during the halftime break reflected just how well they were playing and how we thought they were doing.

A slightly shaky start to the second half saw us conceding a second goal early on, but boy did we come back with an excellent goal from Matt Plater before he got a second after yet another big push forward and following Rocklands’ equaliser. He could have scored a hat-trick had his shot not gone over the crossbar (the end of a great joint effort from Matt Elvin, Dan Brindle and Matt Plater).

And would someone please explain to me why Nick Parker feels compelled to keep scoring from long distance ‘crosses’ and catch everyone - me included - by surprise? Long may that continue…

So we finished the game victors again. Proof that on the day with the right mindset we can win against anyone.

Two final votes of thanks: firstly to Dan Warncken and Henry Leather, neither of whom were played by us - it’s the toughest task of all to sit on the bench for an entire match - as we were keen to keep the momentum going; and secondly to Kristian Websdale for being our linesman again and putting up with the occasional bit of hassle from us!

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Blofield -v- Wymondham

Result: 2-6 Loss
2-2 Halftime

Goalscorers: Plater, Parker

Wymondham Player of the Match: Matt Plater

Probably our most disappointing game yet: during the first half, the boys failed to take advantage of playing downhill, with the wind and with the sun behind them, such that they missed four easy scoring opportunities. When they did choose to actually play football rather than simply attending the fixture, there were moments of good play such as both the goals that we did manage to score.

The second half was simply dire. A complete lack of defence, no will to mark or tackle players throughout the positions, a failure to grasp or apply the offside rule, etc. That and two further easy scoring opportunities squandered. I wondered whether the boys had also forgotten the basics.

Wymondham lost because nobody in the team wanted to win the game or even play to their ability. Blofield, on the other hand, showed that they wanted to win the match and deserved to win because of it.

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Old Catton -v- Wymondham

Result: 1-9 Loss
1-7 Halftime

Goalscorer: Old Catton Own Goal

Wymondham Player of the Match: Daniel Warncken

Another disappointing game: during the first half, the boys simply failed to play to their ability, such that we had effectively lost the game by half-time being down 7-1.

The second half was much improved and this was reflected by our only conceding two more goals.

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