A fine weekend saw the Firsts continue to power ahead, the diminutive U11’s demolish Harlington and the U17’s beat arch rivals FC Kensington:
The U11’s beat Harlington 14-4 at St Marks in their third game of the season. The Dragons settled down quickly and held their positions whilst demonstrating their technical ability to pass quickly before pulling the trigger in front of goal – at the one point the strikers were queuing to score. By the time the referee blew the final whistle the Dragons had scored 14 goals as all the hard pre-season work finally came together. A tremendous result
U13’s were awarded 3 points when Brentham defaulted.
Neither of the U14’s had a game
The U15’s lost 1-3 away against St Josephs in the League Cup. To put it bluntly the Dragons were asleep for the first 20 minutes and gave away an own goal before then compounding the error by conceding a sloppy goal. All at that stage was not lost and the Dragons woke up to score the most amazing of goals from midfield. There was now a game on hand but unfortunately St Josephs scored again and the game was over. This was actually rather a silly game to lose and was not representative of the talented squad who will go on to win promotion this season.
The U17’s beat FC Kensington 3-2 at Birkbeck. The Dragons were eager to get underway and scored an early goal from just outside the box. They continued to dominate throughout the first half without actually scoring. In the final minutes before the half time whistle FC Kensington scored from a mix-up in the Dragons defence to make it 1-1. Back on the pitch FC Kensington scored again and then proceeded to slow the game down with time wasting in a desperate attempt to hold onto their slender lead. The Dragons pressed and pressed to eventually equalise from a series of clean passes. FC Kensington changed tone to become more aggressive but could not score. Finally a fantastic winning goal for the Dragons came when a corner was headed out by FC Kensington only to be volleyed home. A richly deserved Dragons win.
The Firsts beat Pitshanger Dynamos 3-1 at home. The Dragons start could not have been better as they raced to a two goal lead. Pitshanger were not going to lie down however and gave the impression that the first goal after the interval was going to decide the match. They really went after a goal to get back into the game but the well organised Dragons held strong, and indeed looked the most likely to score on the counter attack, which indeed they did from a well executed pin point free-kick over the wall. Pitshanger refused to give up and were finally rewarded with a dubious spot to rob the Dragons of a deserved but illusive clean sheet. Another great Dragons win.
The Reserves lost 1-3 to Hillingdon with a depleted side due to 1st team call ups and injuries. They ignored the coach’s pre match talk stressing the importance of the start and conceded within the first 5 minutes from a 40 yard shot. For the next 10 minutes the Dragons were under intense pressure as they lost shape and discipline and were fortunate not to concede a penalty on 15 minutes. The Dragons began to get a foot hold in the game and created opportunities to draw level but spurned them all. The Dragons finished the half strongly with confidence restored. Two early substitutions and a more offensive formation saw the Dragons in complete control but chance after chance went missing until the clock ticked onto 60 minutes. A betting man would have said that this was to be a Dragons win but unfortunately they became complacent and found themselves 1-2 down with 15 mins to play. The Dragons continued to push for the equaliser but were undone by a Hillingdon counter attack which resulted in a third goal 5 minutes from time. The young Dragons team battled until the bitter end again missing 2 guilt edged opportunities.