The weather continues to dominate. It does seem to your correspondent that this winter is wetter and more dismal than usual but as soon as the sun comes out one has difficulty remembering previous years. Anyway, we pressed on where we could, mostly on muddy pitches:
The Old Dragonians beat Princes Park U21s 1- 0 at home. A hard-fought game where the defences were dominant. The Old Ds had been working hard at training to reverse their run of bad form and that hard work paid off as they kept PP out whilst their own No. 10 was able to create space in the box, swivel and get a shot away that was too well placed for PP’s keeper to stop.
The Firsts lost 1-5 away at Eagles Land Cricklewood. Playing a title-chasing team was a challenge that the Firsts didn’t accept. The Dragons were bettered all over the pitch by a very good team and chose the wrong day to be collectively off their stride.
The Blues had their away game at Wiseman West postponed due to a waterlogged pitch .
The new U11 Boys’ away match was forfeited by CS Rangers who could not raise a side. Instead, the Dragons played a friendly against a CS Rangers team which was beefed up by their higher-division players and lost narrowly 2-4.
The U12 Boys had their home game to Brent United postponed.
The U13 Boys Red beat Pinner United 3-0 away. The Dragons kept up their pursuit of the top three with a great win on the road that puts some breathing space between them and their closest rivals in the League, Pinner United, while also reminding the teams above that the Dragons will compete to the very end.
The U13 Boys White beat Larkspur Rovers 5-0 away. Having previously lost by fine margins against the third placed Larkspur in the League, the Dragons were determined to impose themselves this time around. Despite a shocking pitch, the Dragons continued their high performance to comprehensively win. The Dragons keeper was so well protected that he only had to deal with two free kicks in the entire game, and on another day the score might have been in double figures. Roll on next week.
The U14 Boys narrowly lost 4-5 to West Drayton at home in a nine-goal thriller. Despite being dominated by a tough Drayton side the Dragons showed great resilience and perseverance to fight back until the final whistle and give Drayton a thorough fright.
The U15 Boys lost 3-5 to Hanwell Town at home. Hanwell got off to a cracking start to score first but eventually the Dragons caught up to 1-1 and then it was 2-2 for much of the match. Towards the end, the Dragons conceded some silly goals to gift the win to Hanwell.
The U16 Boys and the U18 Boys had no scheduled matches.
The U10 Boys trained in preparation for the League.
The U12 Girls lost 0-4 away at Wealdstone. It was a tough game this weekend but the Dragons kept battling on with some great patterns of play that will certainly allow them to build upon.
The U14 Girls and the U15 Girls had no scheduled matches.