Bootle FC U16s 1 vs 3 Runcorn Linnetts

It was our first league game since before the holiday period where we had only played one friendly and had no training sessions due to unavailability of players.
We wanted to get back to winning ways after our defeat against Dynamo and i was confident even though we were missing Glen and Callum.
It was a very windy morning when we arrived at Clubmoor with the pitch in an awful condition, would this affect the game and both teams or would one capitalise.

The instructions were to play high up the pitch and use the wind which was in our favour in the first half and take our chances as if the wind stayed we could be on the receiving end in the second half.

It was all Bootle in the first, pressing high winning first and second balls and generally keeping Runcorn penned into their own half with them hardly making way into our half.
The lads were compact and were creating chances galore, scoring thru a header from Tim but other chances went begging and we were not shooting when in position, would we rue these missed chances.
HT 1-0
I felt the lads at half time were not switched on, with some looking like they thought we could see the game out with a win.
There were a few injuries and tiredness taking its toll on the team in the second half and with no extra attacking players available we had to shuffle the team around, this affected us.
Runcorn equalised and i could sense an unusual attitude in the team of feeling sorry for ourselves, it spread and really started to affect our performance.
Runcorn were making good use of the wind behind them as we struggling to get out of our half by playing long balls instead of 5-10 yard passed and playing closer together.
They scored two more before the end of the game to claim the points.
FT 1-3

This was a game of two halves, one of our best working performances where we stayed close together and one of our worse in the second, where we felt sorry for ourselves and didn't play as a team.
We need to learn from this by keeping focused in all eventualities in a game no matter the score, good teams bounce back and we will aim to do so.
Goals: Tim MOM: Tim worked hard throughout but it goes to Sean who tried his best to get the game turned in our favour but more importantly to change the attitudes that was happening around him.