An under-12 friendly game between HTT Academy and Athenlay Rye ended 2-6 in favour of the visiting team.
The eight-goal thriller served up entertainment for those present at the Homestall Road Playing Fields but also a number of lessons for the HTT Academy boys.
HTT Academy 2-6 Athenlay Rye
As earlier mentioned, the game provided lots of goals and excitement, although it didn’t end in a favourable result for HTT Academy for a number of reasons.
It was still a close affair at half-time with Athenlay Rye leading 3-2 and HTT Academy still in the game thanks to two goals from Marquel.
The second half got out of hand and Athenlay ran away with it thanks to three unreplied goals to end the game 6-2.
Marquel was named the man of the match thanks to his brace and overall good game in which he also hit the bar.
HTT Academy coaches’ reaction
Coach Philip
HTT Academy coach, Philip shared some thoughts on the game, “I’m seeing signs of improvement in a few of the players who want to listen, some of them don’t want to run, they just want to turn up and kick ball, the same on match days but I’m helping Coach Jeffery to cut that out of them.”
“The team played well in some parts of the game, especially the first half, they just need to start listen, be disciplined and play and stay in their position but as time goes on they’ll get there,” said coach Philip.
“We need a goalkeeper badly, that’s what cost us two weeks in a row. Overall the game was fun and a learning process for me the start seeing each player’s strengths and weaknesses,” he rounded up.
Coach Jeffrey
Coach Jeffrey offered some more context into the reason for the poor result from an HTT Academy perspective.
“We started the game at a disadvantage this was due to the fact our goalkeeper was absent and also two of our players. This left us with no subs and an outfielder player having to go in the goal.”
“We started the game well and displayed good possession play and the ability to fight as a team despite all the setbacks that occurred.”
“The children have started to understand their position and also improve in combinations play this was shown when HTT had the best goal of the game starting from the goalie passing it all the way up the pitch with our striker (Marquel) finishing off a great play with a good goal.”
