Kick-Off: 11:00am

Referee: John Dale

Result: Cotgrave Colts 0 v Bestwood Park Rangers 6

Team:  

Match Report:

Today we welcomed our new signing Max for his first appearance since his transfer from Clifton AW. When we played Clifton on the first day of the new season we noticed that Max is a real battler, an attribute that is going to make him a very useful addition to the team.

We made a number of personnel changes today; Max started alongside Richard in the centre of defence and Craig moved up to play just in front of the back four. This allowed Liam to push upfront as the supporting forward alongside Dylan who was once again playing as the sole striker.

The early signs indicated that this was going to be a tough battle with Bestwood certainly winning most of the 50/50 challenges. It is sometimes hard to get your own game going when the opposition are so dominant and this was certainly the case. On eight minutes Bestwood were rewarded for their efforts with a goal; an excellent strike it was too.

Credit to the Colts, they were trying to get into the match and in patches started playing some good football. With more self belief Colts might have got straight back into the game as a couple of good chances were created.

On 15 minutes Bestwood scored their second, this time an excellent cross was knocked into the box and the receiving player made no mistake with an excellent header that gave Jack no chance.

On 20 minutes Tom was introduced into the action to give more height at the back; the Bestwood number 9 was very tall and proving a real handful for the defence.

Bestwood looked to have added a third with an excellent shot but Jack pulled off an absolute wonder save diving to his right and turning the ball out for a corner.

Half-Time: 0 – 2

The halftime message was simple “start believing in yourselves”; the Colts have some very good players and we needed to show Bestwood that we meant business.

The Colts performance in the second half was more pleasing than the first half despite conceding a further 4 goals (some of which were top draw and would have graced any football pitch at any level).

The improvement was most noticeable in the way in which the players battled and passed the ball more effectively to create better goal scoring chances. The Colts were unlucky not to be rewarded with a goal for their efforts and went very close on a number of occasions.

Fulltime – 0 – 6

Summary: It is very early but on today’s performance I can’t see too many teams beating Bestwood; as a result I expect them to be near to the top of the table for most of the season. I know that they are struggling for players but the 11 on duty today should be very pleased with themselves.

We are a good side and we are now starting to pull together as a team far more than we have in the past. We can’t forget that we have moved up a division this season and the battles are going to be tougher; but with the new found spirit in the team, more self belief and lots of determination we will do well this season. If we had managed to get a goal when 0-2 today I think that we might have got well and truly back into this game.

The players effort in training on Friday and their attitudes today have really impressed both Mark and I. As you know we want the players to pull together more as a team and the evidence at the moment is starting to suggest that this is happening. Thanks lads.

Special thank you to John Dale for refereeing and thanks to Steve Cockbill for running the line; your help, as always, was greatly appreciated.

Finally, please feel free to add your feedback to this (and any other) match report; players, parents and casual observers the more feedback the merrier.