November 09 2014

Harrow Youth League Division 3

Kensington Dragons U15A 2 v 2 Yeading Wanderers

Scorers Danny , Korey

MotM Korey

A testing game was expected as we faced our old nemesis Yeading Wanderers at LCS and this perception turned into reality.  After a minutes silence for Remembrance Sunday was impeccably observed by all concerned the battle commenced. The Dragons employed their centre half Danny as centre forward for this match to increase our physical presence up front.

The early stages saw the Dragons controlling the game without creating any clear cut chances and it was very much against the run of play that Yeading took the lead from a corner which followed the typical premiership routine of shirt pulling, pushing etc. causing the ref to “have a word” with a few of the offenders. The corner was then duly taken and the ball sailed through our 6 yard box through our keeper hands (unfortunately the ref failed to spot he had been pushed in the back) straight onto the head of an unmarked forward who despatched into the net.

The Dragons fought back and an equaliser was not long incoming as Danny picked up a loose ball in the box and passed the ball into the net. He nearly scored again shortly after a deft chip went over their keeper but also just went over the crossbar. The Dragons took the lead shortly before halftime as Korey cut in from the right and unleashed an unstoppable shot from the right edge of the penalty area which smashed into the net.

The Wanderers wound up by their coach’s halftime talk came out in determined mood and obviously had a plan to close us down earlier than they had in the first half as they tightened up their marking. Even to the extent our linesman was also being man marked by a member of their coaching staff! The Dragons continued to pass the ball but were guilty of giving the ball away allowing Yeading to use their favoured tactic of hitting their physical forward early which did prove effective but both sides failed to add to the goal tally.

That is until Yeading won another corner and scored directly from it as the ball somehow found its way into the net at the near post beating our defender who was positioned there. It turns out the goalpost moved from its original position allowing a gap to appear. These things seem to happen when we play Yeading. The Dragons went in search of a winner and created a few chances but were guilty of going for glory and wasted the chances. As one of the runners using the LCS track stated after the game, “You were the better team but were guilty of showboating.” These wasted chances nearly proved costly as only a fingertip save from our keeper Tom pushing a fiercely hit shot onto the post stopped us from dropping all 3 points and allowed us to collect a hard fought but valuable point

Harrow Youth League Div 3

LNER B 2 v 3 Kensington Dragons U15A

Scorers’ Korey x 3

We were virtually back to full strength for this top of the table clash with LNER B with both teams entering the match with 100% league records having each won our 4 previous fixtures . The game also saw the league’s fixture sec and chief ref Keith Chamberlin officiating (for tactical reasons I held off asking why we have been given 6 consecutive away games).

The first 15 mins were fairly even with the Dragons starting off marginally controlling possession and territory without creating any clear cut opportunities. However just as LNER B were getting a foothold in the game Korey broke and drove into the box and slotted the ball past their keep and inside the far post for the opening goal. The game turned into a midfield battle with no quarter being asked and none given and any danger LNER B offered was being snuffed out by our defence. That was until a chipped back pass to our keeper Tom bounced up like a Mitchell Johnson bouncer, the ball flicking off Tom’s chest into the net for freak equaliser. That’s how it stayed until halftime.

The second half started much like the first half ended with both sides trying to gain the upper hand. Finally we broke the deadlock after a good passing move to put Korey clear in the box again and his shot found the back of the net to restore our lead. Again a defensive error led to LNER B equalising after their striker intercepted a goal kick and punished us in full. The Dragons come under pressure with LNER pressing for a winner but the Dragon defence resorted to making sure the ball was kicked as far away from our goal as possible.

It was however one of these clearances that found Korey again in the clear and his finish was again clinical to grab his second hat trick of the season. with 20mins still left in the game and LNER piling on the pressure resolute defending especially by Noah and Filmon and a couple of crucial stops by our keeper kept our lead intact until the end of the game.

Middlesex FA Cup round 2

AGV B 6 v 3 Kensington Dragons U15A

Scorers’ Joel x 1, Emmanuel x 1 Josh JD x 1

Even though we travelled to AGV for our 2^nd round cup tie with a depleted squad due to injury, illness and players away meaning we could only field 11 players for this fixture, we were still confident of progressing and for the first 20 mins it was going well. A sweetly struck free kick from Joel from 25 yards out flew into the net and then an Emmanuel cross/shot slipped past the AGV keeper giving us a 2-0 lead. However unlike our previous games this season where we went on to dominate the games we allowed AGV back in the game with a couple of defensive errors which lead to AGV levelling the score.

The game then deteriorated into a bit of a slog with persistent niggling challenges disrupting the flow of the game. We regained the lead with a Josh JD goal but this was only short lived as AGV equalised again and took us into half time level at 3-3. During the break the management team told the players to concentrate on playing our football. The second half we started ok but we were kept under pressure from the keeper’s long kicks on a small pitch and AGV’s pacey forwards continually got in behind our defense causing uncertainty which lead to 2 goals via this method.

We tried to lift ourselves to get back into the game, but with a few players carrying knocks and others tiring we could not grab a goal which could have changed the momentum and we conceded again to go down to a 6-3 defeat which ended our 100% start to the season and put us out of the cup. We now dust ourselves down and look forward to our top of the table league match against LNER B next Sunday.

Venceremos B 0 v 18 Kensington Dragons U15A League Cup Round 1

Scorers: Josh JD x 3 , Dean x 3, Emmanuel x 3, Bailey x 2, Ilyas x 2, Corey x 2, Alberto x 1, Pedro x1, Joel x 1

The planets must have been aligned nicely for the Dragons this Sunday as we faced a depleted Venceremos B (Only 11 turned up) and against a team who play a division below us. This is to take nothing away from what was a professional team performance. As you’d expect from the score line we dominated from the start, with time and space given to our midfield of Joel, Ilyas, Corey & Bailey who exploited and created a succession of chances for our forwards Josh JD and Dean who took full advantage of both grabbing first half hat tricks and also grabbed some goal glory for themselves and a 13-0 half-time lead

As we rotated the players during the course of the game our style of play remained of the highest order with some great passing and movement which led to Emmanuel becoming the 3^rd player to score a hat trick and he was joined on the score sheet by Alberto and Pedro, as the second half rolled on we used the opportunity to move players into other position’s.

The most pleasing aspect of the game was the way the whole team passed the ball from back to front and finally credit to our GK/defence of Tom, Josh L, Shaq, Noah and Filmon who maintained their concentration to earn our 2^nd consecutive clean sheet.

Ruislip Town B 0 V 2 Kensington Dragons U15A

The September sun blazed down on Ruislip’s smallish pitch and after beating them last week we were looking to do the double over them, the first 20 mins were fairly even with the Dragons trying to play our normal passing game in a congested midfield and Ruislip trying to get the ball behind our fullbacks we were missing the quality we had shown in our previous games due in part to the size of the pitch.

A deflected pass bobbled into Ruislip’s penalty area and our Forward Josh JD muscled out the keeper and defender to get control of the ball to pass the ball into the empty net. A second followed shortly after when a corner by Bailey eluded both defenders and attackers alike to nestle in the net. We became our own worst enemy as we started giving away cheap and needless free kicks much to the glee of a whistle happy ref. Luckily the RT’s shots were missing the target.

The half time lead was good but the 1^st half performance needed improvement so Coach Dean made 3 changes at half time and a couple of positional changes. The game became a war of attrition with the heat starting to take effect as we wasted a couple of good chances to finish the game off. A fine save from Zak tipping the ball over the crossbar from a long range effort stopped the momentum RT were building up and we managed to hold our lead until the final whistle.

Kensington Dragons U15A 4 v 1 Ruislip Town B

The U15As finally took to the field having not kicked a ball in anger in our previous 2 fixtures winning both by default. We knew this would be a good test as our opposition had been promoted last season finishing second in their Division. The Dragons started well and won a succession of corners but were unable to capitalise on their early dominance, the highlight of the opening quarter was our ability to play the ball out from the back with a series of one touch passing moves. So it was a surprise when we fell behind as we failed to clear the ball and got caught in possession and the Ruislip Town striker took full advantage.

Not shaken, the Dragons kept to their passing strategy and this produced our equaliser, a one touch move released Corey down the left who steamed down the wing and his cross found our striker Josh JD who controlled the ball and slipped it past the keeper. Then from a Ruislip corner we broke and Bailey ran from the halfway line and slipped past the defender and then around the keeper and calmly put the ball into the empty net. Town responded and a free kick rattled our cross bar but we maintained our lead going into the half time break.

The early stages of the second half where punctuated by several stoppages for injuries and repairs to the nets. A highlight was a crunching tackle by Noah our centre half on a Town midfielder. These stoppages did affect our ability to control the game although Town’s only threat was from free kicks & some booming kicks from their keeper which were so long they out ran their forwards.

Fresh legs were brought on and this restored our dominance as Town tired. Another run down the wing from Corey gave him space to deliver the ball into the penalty area where our striker Emmanuel showed great technique to swivel and volley the ball past their keeper to give us a vital 3-1 advantage. The icing on the cake was another solo effect from Bailey weaving in the box to get off a shot to beat their keeper to round off a good team performance.

Under 14s Match and weekly update

A busy week for the U14s last Sunday 11/05 we played a Friendly/Trial match against our U15 A team in what was a good competive game with the older team eventually running out winners 5-4

Thursday evening we had 23 turn-up for training so we had a full blown intersquad trial match current 1st squad vs trialist team to their credit the trialists held their own and at least 4 of them are certs to be selected for the squad next season.

Sunday 18/05 Kensington Dragons U14A 6 v 3 Old Actionians

The Team wrapped up their season with a performance which summed up our season really.We started off well and had the majority of the possession in the first 15 mins and this eventually told as we scored two quick goals; the first after a goal mouth scramble the ball fell to Emmanuel to convert;the 2nd was a gem of a strike from Joel who picked up the ball 25 yards out to pick his spot and curl the ball just inside the right hand post with the keeper powerless.A third from Josh from inside the 6 yard box just before half time gave the Dragons a deserved 3-0 lead without really playing at our best.

The second half Old A’s came fast out of the blocks and put us on the back foot and pulled a goal back through a penalty.We restored our three goal cushion from a corner as the ball fell to our centre half Danny who calmly slotted the ball past their goalie. Then followed a bizarre series of goals firstly Old A’s cut our lead scoring direct from a corner. The ref at this point started making some strange decisions i suspect the sun begun have an affect, as first he failed to give a foul on our centre half then in the same move overruled our linesman’s decision on an offside. We scored again to go 5-3 up as Old A’s keeper failed to keep out Corey’s wicked corner.

Old As kept the pressure on as our keeper made a couple of good saves to keep our lead intact. The game was then made safe with another long distance strike from Dean.

Hanwell Town 3 vs 1 Kensington Dragons U14A

With Dean the coach away, I took control of the team and employed a 3-2-1-3-1 formation based on the availability of players we only had 12 on duty and the fact it works well for me on Football Manager. The game kicked off late as both teams and ref were locked out of the ground and had to wait 20 mins for the keys to arrive, it might have been better if they had not arrived at all.

The first half the Dragons started off well and kept Hanwell under pressure but were unable to test their keeper until we won a penalty and Corey successfully converted it to take the lead. As the half went on we got sloppy and were giving the ball away too easily and Hanwell began to create a few good chances, But we held out to half time.

We changed to 4-4-2 to be more solid defensively, however Hanwell took the inititive and equalised when their striker found some space in the box and finished well. Then a couple of bizzare goals firstly a direct free kick from 30 yards flew into our net and then a corner went straight in, some debate on this one as to the sideline it appeared to hit the post and not cross the goal line. It gave Hanwell a deserved victory as we failed to capitalise on a couple of golden chances late in the game.

Watling Club 5 v 1 KDFC U14A – KDFC U14A 0 v 3 Watling Club

We scored first with a great finish from the edge of the box by Bailey. Then over both games Watling punished us fully for the occasional mistake and our defending from corners. We played the better football but on a small pitch which favored Watlings physical advantage. That coupled by a weak display by the ref and vocal home support/management made for a rather unpleasant trip to North London.