The Oakwood Owls dispatched the Samba Kings Juniors last night in their latest Soccer City U15’s Premier League fixture.
Rod Christopher gives his views on another victory for his team:
The Oakwood Owls kept up their 3 match winning sequence at Soccer City, coming out on top with the odd goal in 9 against Samba Kings Juniors in this Friday U15s Premiership league fixture.
Samba Kings stood 3rd at the start of play and had won all of their previous 4, but the Oakwood boys showed great grit and determination to overcome these difficult opponents with some quite brilliant team play, at one point going 2-0 up after fine finishes by captain Rodley. The Owls team talk beforehand revolved around 3 or 4 touch play, communication and hitting the target early, however this chat seemed to be left in the changing rooms, as the lads again started slowly, only growing in confidence as the game ticked on.
Debutant ‘keeper Rawson pulled off a number of close range saves early on, as Samba began to turn the screw. But it was the Owls who eventually drew first blood, hitting 2, with fine finishes by captain Rodley and good play by Temple. Our shocked, but talented opponents seemed to carry a ‘never say die’ attitude though and came back into it with a penalty and then stringing a number intricate moves between them to forge gilt edged chances. The first period ended 2-2, due to a combination of defensive Owls errors and very clever team play by Samba. These Samba boys certainly showed why they lie in such a lofty position!
The final 12 minutes was an end to end affair, but the Owls lads got their act together at last, as Temple and Rodley strikes put them 4-2 in front on 20 minutes of this 25 minute match. Samba continued to battle hard and continued to cause the Owls’ defence problems with intelligent off-the-ball movement, ending two fantastic moves with excellent goals to restore parity at 4-4. Owls Sub Owino was then thrown on again at 22 minutes and the tactical move came up trumps, as he immediately hit a sizzling left foot shot from distance, beating the keeper all ends up in the final minute. His net buster broke the Samba Kings hearts, as there was only seconds left to recover and in the end the Owls boys held out to return home with maximum points
‘These games are great to watch, but only if you have a very strong heart, as our last few games have only been won in the final minutes! It’s brilliant that we are winning, but I think at times we make it all more difficult than it ought to be. The boys must understand that communication is everything in football and once that penny drops, I will have a really good squad on my hands. I think our games appear a lot closer because we lack a proper forward to finish our good team play. At the moment we have 2 of our regular midfielders up front and I will be looking for an out and out striker over the coming weeks. As a former striker myself I can see how much difference this makes. We do create an awful lot of chances, but we cannot seem to put teams away because of this. It is a fantastic win though, whichever way you look at it’!
Owls squad v Samba Kings Juniors:
Rawson, Coldwell, Kinghorn, Rodley (Capt), Temple, Owino
Next Fridays match;
Oakwood Owls v Leeds United Youth (6pm kick off)
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