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| | FRIENDLY
MATCHES 2007-2008
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On Monday 25th February, 16 members of the Garden Village team travelled to the
Afon Lido in Port Talbot to take up an invitation from
the Swansea Development Squad to play a friendly against one of their teams.
The Garden Village convoy arrived with plenty of time to spare, allowing the
boys to warm up before the first of three fifteen minute matches.
This promised to be an interesting chance for the boys to test themselves
against some of the best players in Swansea in their age group.
Match one saw Garden Village more than holding their own, with most of the
possession, and the ball mostly in the Swansea half, but goals
sadly evaded them. This match ended 1-0 to the Swansea team, but things were
looking encouraging...
  
Match two saw a complete change in Garden Village's fortunes, as the second set
of Garden Village players gave an uncharacteristically lacklustre
performance and allowed the Swansea team to dominate them. A succession of
goalkeeping errors and unusually poor defending resulted in ball
after ball finding the back of the Garden Village net. Garden Village did manage
to score one goal, but the match ended a very disappointing 6-1.
The third match was the most encouraging, with Garden Village putting on their
best performance of the evening and scoring a couple of goals.
(I'm not sure of the result of this match as I was occupied trying to count the
Swansea players on the pitch, which was again 9 to the agreed
Garden Village 8).
  
While the Garden Village boys who played in the first and third matches put on a
reasonable performance, finishing quite well, it wasn't up to their usual
high standard. Unfortunately, the Garden Village boys who played the second
match never seemed to get into their stride, and surprisingly, played well
below the standard they display week after week on a Sunday.
  
To be fair, the pitch the boys played on was much smaller than they are used to,
which appeared to cramp their usual passing style of play, and twice
the Swansea team managed to end up with an extra player on the pitch (something
which hasn't happened once in the ninety nine league matches the
boys have played) until this was pointed out. It would be interesting to see a
replay against this team on grass, on a pitch closer to the size the boys are
used to, and with the more usual 7-a-side.
 
FRIENDLY MATCHES 2006-2007
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GARDEN
VILLAGE
vs
WEST END |
Garden
Village 0 West End 1
Garden Village 2 West
End 1
(Dexter, Lewys)
The boys can never play enough football, and with this in mind, Dai arranged
these matches for Sunday 25th February.
This friendly was played in the
afternoon after playing 3 matches in the morning in Neath.
After eventually tracking the opposition down, we played 2 very enjoyable
matches on grass, and most
of the boys stayed behind and played football amongst themselves after West end
had gone home.
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GARDEN
VILLAGE
vs
GARDEN VILLAGE |
We held a friendly practice match
between the two Garden Village Under 7 Teams
on Saturday 11th November at The Garden Village Club, Stafford Common.
On Friday evening at practice, it didn't look as though we would be able to go
ahead
with this match, the boys first on grass this season, as the rain poured down.
The boys
were keen, as they had just shown, with an excellent turnout in awful weather
for training.
(The boys barely noticed the downpour, although I think the parents did !)
But enthusiasm wouldn't keep the pitch in a fit state to play on in the morning.
Dave decided to wait until Saturday morning to decide whether to go ahead.
An early morning inspection of the pitch, and it was declared that the match was
on.
Dave phoned around to assure everybody we were going ahead, and an amazing 22
players
turned up, which shows the boys enthusiasm and commitment, and what
understanding parents
they have. After a minutes silence for Remembrance Day, and new team photos for
the website,
and to go up on the wall in the clubhouse, the boys got down to business.
We played 3 "halfs" of 20 minutes each, during which all the boys had
a chance to shine.
It was nice to play 9-a-side, with 2 subs, and longer than usual. All the boys
got to play for longer
than they do in the league matches in Neath, which allowed them to get into the
game a bit more.
Final score was 5-1, but the game was much closer than the score suggests, with
both teams performing
well. All the boys seemed to enjoy themselves and, friendly or not, played with
determination.
After the final whistle, we all had chips and a drink in the clubhouse.
A good morning. The boys had fun, and it was nice to play at our home ground.
Hopefully it helped
to build team spirit, and will help the boys to realise they are a part of the
Garden Village Club.
We hope to arrange at least one more friendly against another team before
Christmas.
(Goalscorers: Lewys x3, Jack D, Alex,
Thomas)
Team photos we considered, but
rejected for the clubhouse:-
 
More action photos:-
 
 
 
 
And what friendly game could be complete without a celebratory
"pile-on" ?
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