Cheam Boys Colts 2006/7

Report: It was a very enjoyable match. The opposition were much bigger than us but with the help of good teamwork and some great defending by Craig at the back, we were able to win. Chris scored a hat trick up front and worked very hard throughout the game. As the match went on, the opposition became more and more annoyed and we never gave them a chance to get back into the match.

Development League fixture. Actual score not shown. 1-0 win or lose. 0-0 draw.

Report: After a delayed start due to the opposition not having a goalie (Andy Wall kindly stood in ) the match was played in sun, sleet and a howling wind. Cheam started off strongly and with good defense their goal was never really threatened. Duncan scored an excellent goal to put the home team 1-0 up at half time.

After the break Cheam continued to press with Timmy scoring with a reverse sweep from a very tight angle and Duncan flicking in his second from the edge of the D. Despite Oxted trying to push forward Cheam's defense stayed strong, only conceeding a couple of short corners, and managed to keep a clean sheet. Overall it was a good team effort with an excellent result.

Report: The game started off dramatically with Cheam conceding a Penalty Flick in the first 5 minutes which was converted in by the Woking player. The rest of the first half was a struggle with Woking netting in 8 goals with extremely clinical finishing, Cheam meanwhile failed to score any with the Woking defence offering excellent resistance.

The half time team talk offered results with Cheam almost immediately scoring with a nice finish by Chris B. Woking tightened their hold on the game by following up with another 6 goals in succession, but towards the end of the match Duncan slotted the ball past the Woking goal keeper skillfully to leave the final score 14-2.

Development League fixture. Actual score not shown. 1-0 win or lose. 0-0 draw.

Report: The Colts U14 team played Bromley and Beckenham on Sunday. They started of strongly with a couple of promising runs. The scoring was oppened with the help of Chris W and Matt who set up Craig to help the ball into the top corner of the goal. Angarjan played superb with his skill to dribble past players. The second was scored by Craig with the assistant of Julio. Cheam started the second half strongly and soon after Craig scored his third goal of the game to complete a well-deserved hat-trick. Oli played very well in goal, making some crucial saves. Throughout the game the defence were strong, especially from the the right where Marcus played very well.

Report: Cheam started brightly, Julio looking capable of achieving his promise of hat-trick with 2 goals in the first 5 minutes. Cheam kept up the pressure and were rewarded with a 4-0 lead at half-time.

An encouraging half time talk, with a comfortable and well deserved lead, meant Cheam started brightly in the second half. Cheam got an early goal in the second half but were shocked when Epsom scored with their first chance inside the Cheam area. This just spurred Cheam on with 4 more goals to come in the half, the last 2 securing hat tricks for Julio and Chris.

It was a very attacking performance by Cheam which paid off with good, consistent attacking play and good distribution from the back.

Development League fixture. Actual score not shown. 1-0 win or lose. 0-0 draw.

Report: Cheam U14 were ready to give it there all on Sunday with captain Craig leading the team. The first half started off averagely with the opposition out shining the Cheam boys. Purley managed to get an early goal under their belts which seemed to slightly knock Cheam’s confidence but Cheam were soon playing well again for the rest of the first half only letting one more lucky goal in to make the HT score 2-0 to Purley.

As the Cheam boys started the second half it was obvious that the coaches’ half time pep talk had given confidence to the boys, who were playing there hearts out. The persistence of the U14 was rewarded with a nice goal by Cheam newcomer Gumahar to make the score 2-1 to Purley. The last 20 minutes of the game were gruelling with both teams tiring and both had had a few good chances. Towards the last 5 minutes of the game a lucky goal was scored by the opposition to make the end result 3-1 to Purley, which did not reflect the way Cheam played at all.

Development League fixture. Actual score not shown. 1-0 win or lose. 0-0 draw.

Report: The Colts U14 boys played Sanderstead on Sunday. It was possibly the first time this season that we had got a team of U14s out with only one over age player. Thanks to new boy Tom for playing his first ever match for us. The match began well with the midfield in particular playing well. Most of the first half continued this way but, unlike Sanderstead, we were unable to put the ball into the goal and went into half time 2-0 down. The start to the second half was not so promising however, and we let in two quick goals. We kept pressing but still could not score and let in a few more goals despite our inexperienced keeper, Ollie, making some good saves. Towards the end we were desperate to get at least one goal back and kept up a constant attack for the last ten minutes forcing a couple of short corners. However, without any of our regular short corner strikers, we were unable to convert them. The match ended 7-0 but I don’t think that the scoreline represents the way that! we played.

Report: This was a bit of a shock to the system after the Christmas break. Although the scoreline suggests a thrashing, it does not really reflect the game which was mostly very competitive. Reigate had some strong players and their finishing was excellent. They scored from a high proportion of their attacks with some shots going in from near impossible angles. Andy pulled off some good saves which prevented the score from being even higher. At the other end of the pitch we attacked well and had plenty of good shots including those from Matt, Duncan, Gurmaher, Timmy, Julio and Craig. In addition we had four short corners. Unfortunately Reigate had an excellent goalie who somehow managed to keep everything out. After being 7 down at half time, the team played much better in the second half with particular improvement in defence, and only lost the second half by a single goal.

Welcome to our two new players Gurmaher and Matthew Bush who wins man of the match this week for some excellent defensive work, particularly in the second half. Thanks to Andy for umpiring and to Louise for helping out with the coaching this week.

Development League fixture. Actual score not shown. 1-0 win or lose. 0-0 draw.

Report: So this was it - the last game of 2006. Both sides had their moments of brilliance and their moments of mediocrity in equal shares. There was a wide range lf ability in the two well matched teams. Cheam had the Eales twins playing together for the first time. Marcus was encased in a goalies kit for the first time having been 'volunteered by his Dad and Tim was playing his first ever match.

Cheam started strongly with Duncan arriving in the Kenley D within the first few seconds and moments later Matt was unlucky to put the ball wide of goal. The play see-sawed from one end of the pitch to the other. Matt and Angarjan were working well up front with some good passing and runs. Marcus was unlucky to fumble the ball on the line to conceed the opening goal but redeemed himself later with some good saves. Joe got Cheam of the mark from a short corner and Matt put Cheam ahead from another corner. The lads couldn't keep Kenley at bay though. as one of their 'danger men' all too easily found a way through the Cheam defence to level the score at half time.

Cheam came under an increasing amount of pressure at the start of the second half and it looked as if things were going to disintegrate as Kenley pulled ahead again from a short corner. Yet again Matt pulled things back again to make his hat-trick and put Cheam ahead again. Sadly Kenley were not done for as Cheam were forced into giving away yet another corner from which the opposition levelled the score once more.

Report: The first half didn't realy go to well for us with them scoring 5 goals and us getting none.

The second half was a lot better with us getting most of the possesion and managing to keep it in their half, eventually gatting a goal from Alex which was a great goal but having that short lived by them getting another two goals ... great.

Other than the score it was a good match with us taking most of the control in the second half ... well done!

Development League fixture. Actual score not shown. 1-0 win of lose. 0-0 draw.

Report: The under 14 boys played in a league match against Bromley and Beckenham development team. The Cheam side were quite inexperienced with a couple of new players. From the moment the whistle went we got stuck in - on the attack from the word go. The team were linking the two wings together passing the ball across the pitch and then sending penetrating balls down the wings. The scoring was opened by Tim and the second goal followed soon afterwards when Ben completed a good passing move. In the second half Joe struck a blazing short corner. Then, after numerous opportunities Angarjan slipped the ball past the keeper, The last goal came minutes later when Matt drew the keeper and slipped it to give Alex an open goal. Throughout the game the defensive play was very strong, especially from the the right where Marcus played very well. Even though the goalkeeper didnt have much to do in the first half he played extremly well in the second period ! making several crucial saves. The 5-0 win was a team performance which was won by the well judged passing creating many opportunities.

Report: This was an excellent team performance today and if a few more of the goal chances had been taken we could easily have come away with a win. The team blasted out of the blocks and attacked Surbiton from the start, with about 90% of the first half played in Surbiton's half of the pitch. Cheam had some good goal chances and were unlucky not to be awarded a penalty flick when Duncan was demolished in front of goal. Even more unluckily, Surbiton managed to score from a breakaway attack and we ended the first half one nil down. Surbiton played much better in the second half but Cheam continued to play with real determination and also defended well when Surbiton attacked. Early in the second half Cheam equalised with a goal from Julio from a well-taken short corner. Surbiton went ahead again after a free hit but Cheam continued to attack and Lawrence equalised again from another short corner and the match ended 2-2. All the boys played well today w! ith some excellent passing and really determined battling for the ball which paid off with a large amount of possession. Man of the match goes to Simon today for great attacking play together with some vital defensive work. Thanks to Gary and Andy for coaching and David for umpiring.

Development League fixture. Actual score not shown. 1-0 win of lose. 0-0 draw.

Report: We started off well, within the first five minuites Julio had scored a goal and the ball was kept on their side of the pitch most of the time. Our second goal was scored shortly after and was scored by Angarjan who was playing right upfront. Shortly after Julio scored his second goal of the match which was thirteen minutes into the match Matt got hit by one of thier players chipping the ball up. this was 5 minutes after the same player had almost hit the ball into his face (it missed by a couple of centimetres.) Matt went of for a couple of minuites and this was when Purley scored their first goal. Shortly after they scored another. luckily now it was half time and that was to be the last of thier goals. After half time Matt was back on. he had two near goals but couldn't get it in because of the defenders from purley hanging in the goal. Julio made his third and final goal giving him a hat-trick and it had only just been half time! By this p! oint thier team was getting annoyed and the score was 4-2. Duncan gave a good setup to me but unfortunately the goal was not counted. Matt went on to score another two super goals, one of which hitting the top left of the net. everybody played really well and the defenders did really well at keeping the ball away from the goal which meant that our goalie didn't really get much to do. Man of the match was deffinatly Matt despite injuring his hand 15 minutes into the game. as i said befor we all played really well and we played well as a team.

CORRECTION!
In the match report for the U14 game on 8th October, I mistakenly attributed all of Cheam's goals to Timmy. This was not the case, as the final goal was popped into the net by Duncan. Apologies to Dunc.
Richard Wall

Report: This game was another harsh but productive learning curve for the ever improving U16's against a very strong Teddington team. Cheam started on the back foot but did well to soak up continuous waves of pressure from the pink shirted Teddington attack. The defence stayed disciplined but soon enough they banged one away from a short corner. A dissapointing start but we didn't give up.

Soon after, another two were scored by Teddington from short corner's. The disapointment was clear on our faces as we knew we weren't at our best, but we fought back only to concede again on the stoke of half time. We felt unlucky to be going into the break four nil down, but came flying out of the traps in the second period.

Again however, we were caught on the break and we found ourselves 5 to nothing down. We finally started to get into our stride with great stick skills from both Joe and Matt, and great defensive work by both Nirav and George. Julio seemed to be everywhere, making tackles and winning back the ball, and Timmy was making a lot of progress wide right.

At 6 - 0 we finally broke our duck, when Matt showed great control to run from half way and play a neat one two with Ben. Matt then slid in a great ball to Craig on the P spot who slapped it home. Finally a reward for an excellent and hearty team effort.

Cheam continued to press, with Julio and Matt continuing to work well in the middle. At the full time whistle, even after an 8 - 1 defeat, Cheam looked for the positives in a great team game. In the second period Cheam matched Teddington well and were unlucky to concede 4, but a great effort from all involved, next time we will get the result!

Development League fixture. Actual score not shown. 1-0 win of lose. 0-0 draw.

Report: Wow! What a great game, with a cliff-hanger of a finish..
Two well matched teams had a brilliant morning. There was some super stick technique on display from everyone. To be honest, everybody deserves a mention.
Duncan had an early chance at goal
Joe's shot from a corner was saved by the Sanderstead goalie, who had a very good morning.
Timmy opened Cheam's account and scored every one of Cheam's goals.
Oli and Chris S. did some good tackling.
Chris W was unlucky not to score from a couple of crosses.
Ben had a good game on the wing.
Andy produced some good saves.
George and Nirav were solid in defence with George stopping a certain goal.
Joe and Timmy had some great runs with the ball.
Angarjan tackled well and showed some fine stick skills and Alex ran his socks off to get to the ball up front.
There was an object lesson in playing to the whistle when the ball went out of play at the Cheam end but it wasn! 't spotted by the umpires. Cheam stopped playing and stood still, Sanderstead just carried on and the ball ended up in the net - result - the scores were level.
Cheam were granted a short corner a second before the final whistle. With the scores level, everything depended on Cheam getting the ball into the net. It took 3 goes for Cheam to score. The first 2 attempts having to be retaken because of technical infringments.
Thanks to Gary for coaching and to Barry for umpiring (however reluctantly!)

Report: I know we live in a multi-cultural society and the Cheam time is a perfect reflection of this, but I couldn't help thinking of the Biblical story of David and Goliath when the Wimledon lads arrived for the match. Here was a team where if was obvious that every member fitted firmly into the U16 category, whereas more than half of the Cheam boys are still under 14. Would David be able to slay Goliath? Well not exactly but they had a jolly good try.

Under the captaincy of Julio the Cheam boys got off to a pretty good start, with both teams having an equal share of the play and Angarjan in particular showing some good skills against boys who towered over him. Gradually however Wimbledon were able to exploit some weaknesses in the Cheam defence and Andy was called on to produce a cracking save and palm the ball over the net. Wimbledon forced 2 short corners and the inevilable goal followed from the second of these after 14 min. Cheam recovered ! well and Duncan and Craig mounted a spirited attack. Wimbledon rallied again and Julio, who throughout the match was solid in defence, put a stop to a dangerous looking attack. The Cheam defence was in total disarray soon after and they handed Wimbledon their second goal on a plate.

Wimledon again managed to force short corners and scored 2 more goals. Andy was unlucky not to stop the second one, slipping on the very wet surface.
Simon and Craig pullled out the stops and took the battle back to Winbledon's end but despite 2 corners the lads just could not find the net.

Steph's half time 'chat' set out to address the defensive failings and it was clear that there had been some confusion as to who was supposed to be doing what. With this sorted out Cheam came out for the second half in much better shape. There was still pressure from Wimbledon but Timmy found his legs and made a great attacking run to which the opposition conceeded a corner. Matt was able to smash ! a super shot into the back of the net for Cheam's first goal -! 'David' was not going to give up the fight just yet.

Wimbledon were not going to give up either though and Andy had to find another great save to stop the scorline looking any worse.
Wimbledon's final goal came after a goalmouth scramble when one shot was saved but one of the 'Dons' was able to stop the clearance for another shot at goal.

Timmy again made space for himself and made another great run up the pitch to find Matt who was really unlucky when his shot hit the cross-bar. Cheam carried on attacking and Julio, who had come up from defence, put away Cheam's second goal with a searing shot right in front of the goalmouth. Wimbledon still had their chances but Andy saved the day with another great save from a short corner.

There was a much about Cheam's performance today which was excellent. Even though they didn't win there is much potential and the team will become more disciplined as the season progresses.

Report: After three weeks of practice, time for some action in the form of a training game against PWs. Purley claimed only to have four in the top age group but they must all have been in grow bags as their whole team were about a foot taller than ours! Nothing daunted by the size difference (though Angerjan and Ben did ask for step ladders!) we embarked on three twenty minute training games.

In the first, Andy (resplendent in his favoured blue and yellow kit) shone in goal, keeping out shots from all angles, whilst his defence struggled to get to grips with marking, a skill which lies dormant over the summer and takes a while to polish up! As the only survivor (apart from Andy) of last year's U16 team, Julio took on the central midfield role, hurling himself into every tackle, ably assisted by debutant Craig Grant on his left. Eventually Purley found the net to win the period 1-0 but at the break the talk from Cheam was that the opposition, despite their size, were not as fearsome as at first thought.

The second twenty minutes saw Cheam force some short corners, Duncan and Angerjan surging up the right, both players bamboozling the oppo into conceding freehits and Julio and then Joe continuing some good work in midfield. Our short corner routine needs a bit more work, as we struggled to get a shot away, but the boys can take credit for winning the corner decisions. Craig continued to impress at left midfield with some excellent tackles and interceptions and some incisive infield running, including coping with a ball lifted into his stomach and riding the blow to press forward to Cheam's advantage. However over exuberance at the front (and giving the ball away just as we threatenend their circle) led to Andy and his defence getting caught by some quick breaks and superior finishing by the Purley forwards meant that they emerged victorious again.

By the third period Cheam were tiring-the difference shorter legs makes!!- although we kept up a great work-rate right to the end. Duncan stepped in to midfield to lend support, and Chris Sharp, another on his Cheam debut, had a stab at defending and didnt make a bad fist of it. George discovered his running boots, time and again determindly keeping up with the Purley forwards and nudging the ball away. Nirav worked steadily in defence and Ben and Chris Wall made some good runs up front but ultimately Purley used their physical stamina to seal victory with 3 well-taken goals.

Cheam should not be down-hearted by this result. It was a baptism of fire for the many for whom this represented a big step up in standard but there is lots of promise and skill in this newly-formed side which will start to make a difference as the season goes on and we get used to the demands of U16 hockey.