This week we take a look at our 14th grade Colts and hear about how they got on last week:

Selwyn United's 14th Grade Colts took on a very good Nomads side on Saturday. It was a good game to watch for the neutral with both teams looking to play their clubs ‘brand’ of football.

It was the Colts first game playing in a 4-4-2 diamond and it showed during the first 10 minutes as the players looked to work out and fine tune the set up.

However, it wasn’t long before the players found their feet and began to combine well. These little combinations in tight areas allowed us to regularly break through the Nomads high press and throughout these combinations LB Reece Ager was able to combine with CM Isaac Topham to release FWD Jacob O’Connell who found himself 1v1 against the Nomads GK where he calmly roll the ball into the bottom corner. 1-0 Selwyn.

Nomads continued to press high yet they looked to get on the ball themselves. The game had a few scrappy moments however, there was also some great football being played by both sides. 

A Nomads attack lead to a late tackle in the Selwyn penalty area, with a penalty kick awarded to Nomads. Colts GK Casper Clerens made himself big and managed to get a hand to the ball. Unfortunately it was not enough to keep the ball from hitting the bottom corner. Nomads 1-1 Selwyn.

Going into the half time break the players were asked how to create width in a formation that is very narrow. The squad came to the decision that our FB’s and Forwards were effective ways to maintain width and so we headed into the 2nd half with a clear plan on how to cause Nomads problems.

The 2nd half was similar to the first in the sense that both teams continued to play, the only difference being that, both LB Zoe McMeeken and RB Hugo Greet looked to provide as much width as possible in wide areas. Our forwards also looked to join the build up play in wide areas and the Colts then realised that they had started to take control of the game. This led to several chances and some fantastic saves from the Nomads GK to prevent the Colts taking the lead.

Nomads were still a threat, especially from set pieces. But some gritty defending from the Colts, and a few important saves from Casper made sure we finished the 2nd half with a clean sheet.

A few late chances, including a 25 yard strike coming back off the post by Isaac saw the game through to the final whistle. No goal would be scored and the game finished 1-1.

A very god performance all round by the young Colts, although, a few standout performances were Finn Odgers and Flynn O’Connor in unfamiliar midfield roles and forward Finlay Cotton providing a great link from defence to attack. However, Man of the Match goes to Hugo Greet who had a stellar game at RB. Hugo also really help the side take control of the game in the 2nd half with his gritty defending and determination to be a constant threat with his overlapping runs going forwards.