Match Report - Okehampton 1 - 4 Central City

It is rare that I am lost for words boys……but the team's performance this morning away at Okehampton was SENSATIONAL and you should all be really proud of the way that you played and supported our team! 

As we said at training, this was our toughest test of the season so far, but even from the warm up I could tell that all 12 of the boys were fired up and ready to put it on the line! 

We were missing Julen who was poorly so hope you feel better soon Julen! 

The team fitted back into a 9-a-side formation really easily, the 3-4-1 shape worked well and suited the play of a number of Central players. 

 As before we had a solid defensive game, with great play from Sam R, Will A, Oscar, Cameron and Teo enabling us to feel confident that even when Okehampton pressed we held a strong defensive line. It was also great to see some of the close ‘touch tight’ marking that we focused on at training. 

We had strong goalkeeping performances from the two Sam’s!! Sam P in the first half and then Sam R in the second. 

Further up the field our 4-wide midfield were simply outstanding. Great performances from Dan, Will P, Joe, Ryan in the first half and then from Alfie R and Sam P in the second half. Alfie W had a good game up front showing good strength holding the ball up. 

We were unlucky to go a goal down in the first half, but boys you showed so much positive energy and didn’t let your heads drop. We were assisted by the wind in the second half and scored four great goals, Dan, Sam P and Alfie W (2). 

Thanks to Shane for picking the ‘Man of the Match’. He had a tough decision to make as there were many good performances, but his pick of Sam P was a great call! Shane picked Sam P for his performance in goal in the first half and then on the left of midfield in the second half, scoring a goal and generally having a strong all-round game. Well done Sam P. 

The team had good leadership from Dan again as captain and we all showed good spirit and sportsmanship. 

Thanks as always to John Braddick for his skill and guidance and to all the parents for making the trip. 

The league table has already been updated and shows that we are slowly moving up the table, crucially we now join Bideford Blues as the only undefeated team of the season. 

As well as playing really well, it is great to see us enjoying our football so much, playing with a smile and working so well as a team. 

See you all at training at St Luke's starting at 6pm on Wednesday. 

Enjoy the rest of your weekend! 

Mark 

PS – Good luck to Micky who is running the Great West Run tomorrow!! Go Micky!!

Match day reporter sought!!!!

Calling all budding journalists!! 

Would anyone be interested in doing a few reports this season on Central City’s matches which we could try and get published in the Express and Echo?

Perhaps an older brother or sister of a player with an interest in writing might be interested?? A parent, or alternatively I would be happy to work with one of the players to try and write a report if they would be interested? 

Wouldn’t be a regular thing, maybe two or three times during the season, along with a couple of photos would be good to raise the profile of the club and also great for the boys to see their names and picture in print! 

Let me know if you or anyone you know might be interested in taking this on.

Cheers 

Mark

Team Selection for Okehampton match

Hello everyone, 

Really positive training session last night boys thank you so much for your hard work and commitment. It was really good to see the whole squad at our midweek training, so nice work lads (and parents!!)

I also wanted to thank Callad for joining our coaching team, Callad has played for Central since he was in the under 11’s team and so will bring experience (and youth!) to the training sessions. Callad will mainly be with us on Wednesday nights as he has other commitments on a Saturday. 

 As we discussed in training, Okehampton are going to be a tough team to play against and we will need to be organised, disciplined in defence and be prepared to play with energy (on the front foot!) for the whole hour. 

 We will need to approach all games as a whole squad. We will utilise all the players each game. Therefore if you are named as a substitute you will need to remain focused on the game and keep warm, and also help to support the boys that are playing. If you are called off during a game, it is important to remember that we need to rotate the team, so don’t worry or think that you haven’t played well. 

We will be playing a 3-4-1 formation on Saturday. This will give us width in the midfield and also ensure a strong defensive structure. 

The starting team will be: 

Goalkeeper: 

Sam P 

Defense:

Sam R, Cameron and Oscar 

Midfield:

Joe, Will P, Dan (captain) and Julen 

Striker:

Alfie W 

Starting substitues:

Will A, Ryan, Teo & Alfie R. 

As I have said it is great to see boys training hard and pushing for their places in the team. 

All boys will play a part in this game; having fresh legs is going to be really important in this 60 minute match! 

Okehampton play at Simmons Park, Mill Road, Okehampton EX20 1PR. It is not far off the A30 but can be a bit tricky to find the playing field! Plenty of parking and it backs onto a leisure centre which offer nice coffee and snacks! 

We will start our warm up and match preparations at 10.00am ahead of a 10.30am kick off. 

Any problems as ever just get in touch (0787 601 8577) 

Thanks everyone 

Mark

Wednesdays Training Focus - Defending

Hi everyone, 

 After our great result on Saturday we now need to focus on preparations for the game this Saturday. I think Okehampton will provide us with our toughest test yet this season. 

What do we know about Okehampton? 

Well they are joint top of the league, have played four and won four. We should note two things from their performances so far. Firstly they have scored 7 goals in one game and 9 in another. This tells us that they have a strong attack but also that they keep going until the final whistle. The second thing to note is that whilst they did beat CS Leopards it was a tight game (2-1) where as we were able to put 5 goals away against them. 

 This should give us confidence boys and be clear that if we keep our shape and do the basic things well we standa good chance of beating Okehampton. It is games like this that we will need to take if we hope to get promotion.

Training will be tomorrow (Wednesday) at St Lukes. We will be starting at 6.00pm. 

The focus of training will be defending. 

Ensuring we have a strong defence is  going to be so important against a strong strike team such as Okehampton. 

 We will be looking at defending in open play and also from set piece plays such as corners and free kicks. 

 As ever any questions or problems please get in touch with me as soon as possible. 

 See you Wednesday 

 Mark

Match Report: Central City 6 - 1 Central United

Wow!!!! Well what a great day we had on Saturday and how well everyone played. 

This was our first competitive match for many weeks and only our second of the season, so it was always going to be a test for us. Added to this, we were playing our friends from Central United. It was a great game played in a spirit of friendship, we played hard but we played fair and you should all be very proud of this. 

We had to play in a slightly different formation to accommodate the reduced numbers. It was also my first game as manager so I cannot thank you enough for the way that you all played and supported the team. 

Special mention goes to Joe for his fantastic sporting gesture, many thanks Joe! 

Everyone played their part in this stunning 6-1 win. Playing a 3-2-1 formation worked really well. This was a game in which everyone played really well. It was good to see some of the work that we have been doing in training, such as throw-ins, being used in the match . A solid defensive game from Sam R, Will A, Cameron, Teo and Oscar gave us all confidence, and enabled great play in the midfield from Julen, Dan, Ryan. Alfie was on great form and scored two great goals, including an unstoppable shot from distance. Dan also had a storming game and scored twice. Julen and Ryan also got on the scoresheet, to make it 6 strong goals and give us a good goal difference.  

We saw great passing, players creating time on the ball and not panicking, trusting each other in the passing game, short and simple passes. 

Thank you to Micky for choosing his ‘Man of the Match’. Dan had an outstanding game, his first as captain, led by example, great running and passion as ever.....and a couple of goals to round it all off!! Well done Dan.

It was great to join our friends from United after the game and share a pizza so thanks for all that came along.
Mark

Goalmouth action from Saturday's City vs Utd match.

Saturday 5th October - Derby game against Central United

Hi everyone,

As discussed at training on Wednesday, we have agreed to play a 7-a-side match against Central United with a reduced pitch size. This seemed the best solution after the league made it difficult to postpone the game! We will be missing three players for this match (Will P, Alfie R and Sam P). This will mean that we have to make a few changes to the shape of the team, which might mean you (or your son) playing in an unfamilar position. However, as far as possible we will try and keep it the same as before. We will have a number of subs and I will make sure that everyone plays a good portion of the game. 

Normally, I would like to announce the starting line up via this blog on Thursday after training. However, just for this week (and because I am still finding my feet), we will do this on Saturday morning during the warm up. Dan Wilding has been handed the captain's armband, having shown great commitment to training and a great attitude. We will rotate the captains' responsibilities throughout the season. 

To keep things simple, we will be working on the basis that your son is available for each match UNLESS you tell us otherwise. Please could you tell me by the Wednesday before the next match if your son cannot make it. I realise that there may be some occasions when a late withdrawal is unavoidable and in these cases, please text or email me directly. 

Thanks again for all your help and I hope you're finding these messages easy to access and read! 
Cheers,

Mark

And it's hello from Mark as well!!

Hi everyone I am really pleased that this site is up and running and a big thank you to Jonathan and to Jon Gray for helping us. We hope to use this blog to: - be a primary point of information relating to the team - be the place that we will make team announcements. - Provide matach reports and statistics. - Review training sessions - And I am sure much much more!! I hope that you will also be an active part of this online community, the more the merrier! Best wishes and enjoy the site! Mark