At South Woodham but playing Old Coopers

A good day at South Woodham and not just because I managed to get into the car park. Both the teams we played were actually from Old Coopers rather than South Woodham. In hindsight it would have been better if we had kicked off earlier and then we may have had more time to play the 3rd game against South Woodham. I think we may start asking the teams we visit what time they plan the kick off for just so we can have a better idea of start times and finish times.
With the extended warm up period I got the boys playing touch which they seemed to enjoy. It works well both as a warm up game and also a training game. It works well being able to call touch even if the player has not been caught so we can practise passing and support running.

For both games the energy and enthusiasm was definitely visible from all the players. Both Old coopers team provided a good standard of opposition. The quick feet of Old Coopers smallest player showed the players that speed of movement can make tackling a player very difficult.
Attacking there was some good runs by Billericay and good passes. A couple Kamikaze passes that ended up in the other teams hands but I would not expect every pass to be perfect.
We did demonstrate our environmentally friendly nature during both games. Our desire to stand so close to each other when either starting from kick off or from the touchline saved a lot of grass from being trodden on.
So we will see if introducing positions will help spread the players out across the pitch.
Defensively there were some great tackles and some great tackle attempts. I think a fair number of the near misses are where the players are trying to grab the other player at the hips in order to tackle them. In trying to grab them at their hips the attacking player has the momentum to break through the tackle. So we will look to try and get the players fully wrapping their arms round the player with the ball so this should make it more difficult for the attacking player to break the tackle.
Next week we have training and are also I believe on Kitchen duty, so if you can help out in the kitchen please let Dave know.