23^rd August 2010Pool U14’s entered their final week of week of pre-season today with a home friendly with Wigton moor.The game started well with Pool taking charge right from the start, Wigton did have some good attacking options, but they were unable to penetrate an extremely solid defence that saw a new partnership of Zak and Adam M working very well together with the help of Lewis and stand in left back James W. Wigton had an approach of 3 strikers, this was obviously there best options as they were quite strong in attack and used one of there attackers to apply a constant pressure on the left back an obvious ploy that was snubbed out by some excellent defensive play and disciplined positional awareness from James W. At right Back Lewis was also being put under a lot of pressure as an over enthusiastic midfield tried to double up on him, mistakenly seeing him as an easy target to penetrate the back line. On the odd occasion the back line was penetrated, Will was there to take control in goal, having an outstanding first half between the sticks.Pools midfield had a different feel to it today with Alex coming to play a notable role alongside Jack, who was as enthusiastic as ever. With width provided by Messrs Arif and Luke, left and right respectively and Jonny in more of a free role just in front adding extra strength and pace. All the midfield battled hard and moved the ball quickly and effectively, allowing Jacob up front his opportunity, with a good ball across the box from Jonny, he pounced and drilled home the first goal of the game. With a second coming from Jonny using his blistering pace to good effect again and a third from one of Luke’s top draw corner’s being flicked on for an own goal, Pool looked good for a half time lead of 3 nil. A slight drop in concentration however allowed a Wigton midfielder the opportunity to half volley a rasping 25 yard shot at goal which left a scrambling Will no chance of stopping. A fine effort, but lets close those down boys!!!Pool had 4 or 5 other opportunities during the first half, a mistaken offside for Jacob being one of the better opportunities, but it was the volleyed shot from 30 yards out from Alex that looped and hit the crossbar and came back into play that had the crowd doing the ‘tiptoe rollercoaster’.The second half was a little more nervy, with things changed a little for the manager to see a few things, a slight unbalance was given to the team, Meaning that second half goalkeeper Charlie was put under a little more pressure. He handled the situation extremely well and played one of his best games in the Pool number 1 shirt. A basic defensive error of allowing the ball to bounce in the six yard box led to a Wigton striker pouncing to make it 3-2 to pool and some more sloppy play of not clearing the ball almost led to it being 3-3 had it not been for 2 outstanding point blank saves from Charlie, followed by a well timed goal line clearance from Zak.With new things tried, a re-jig was done and pool looked stronger and retook control of the game and aside from the abuse of the Pool linesman after his flagging for a yet another foul Wigton throw, Wigton failed to contribute anything further to the match. With 3 minutes to go, Jonny sealed the win by weaving and burying his second and Pools forth, leaving Pool worthy winners against a side with undoubted talent, but not enough on the day. 

Pool U14’s 4 v 2 Wigton Moor