The Pinewood Pythons U10 played their first game of the season, Saturday September 6 on their home pitch of Wildmoor Heath School. With a delayed kick off at 10:30 the boys made good use of the extra time getting to know each other’s assault course ability on the school’s climbing equipment. With the previous game over they were put through the warm up paces by coach Mattie and “new assistant part-time coach(???)” Owen.
Playing against a newly formed all-girls team, short of one player, this match was a good introduction to the season and a chance for the players to get used to each other on the pitch. Credit to the opposition for each playing the full game and to the Pythons for putting a player (Eddie/Leo/Aaron/Sammy) out on loan for a quarter at a time and each of them giving them a good shift.

The game itself was one-sided with the Eagles struggling to consistently move the ball between their players and get it up the pitch for sustained periods. The Pythons applied pressure up the pitch throughout the match, confident that if the opposition played past them their two sweepers were there to clean up and move the ball back into attack.
For stretches at a time it did seem the Pythons just couldn’t get the ball to an open goal-scoring position - the Eagles kept getting their legs in disrupting their flow. Nonetheless there were good phases of play and some good passes and runs using the width of the pitch. The breakthrough came in the 5th minute when an Eagles’ move forward was thwarted by an Aaron thump up the pitch, falling kindly for Philip at the edge of the box. Having briefly moved to a more central position he was able to shift the ball to his favoured left foot and smacked it high towards the top left corner. The keeper got a hand to it but couldn’t stop it from being parried into the goal. 1-0 Pythons.
The goal bred confidence and the Pythons continued to do more of the same pressure leading to possession up the field with plenty of shots. It was a foray down the right side that led to a cross, snapped at towards goal by Sammy, but parried by their keeper, that led to the ball landing at the feet of Brody. He quickly dispatched a strong right-foot drive into the left corner of the goal making it 2-0, which is how the first quarter finished.
A few changes in the team positions for the second quarter didn’t change the pattern of play. With Oliver, Leo and Sammy seemingly covering every blade of grass box to box between them the Eagles rarely progressed past halfway. Anytime they did across all four quarters, whether it was Riley, Brody, Aaron, Vinnie or Eddie, it was cleaned up to safety or back up the pitch for another attack.
Two second quarter goals were scored by Riley. The first of his brace again came from an attacking reversal. An Eagles attack was stopped, with one pass up to Oliver who in turn was able to pass the ball straight up the pitch into the path of Riley who calmly finished into the left-bottom corner. His second was Beckham/Ward-Prowse/Henry-esque (inside well-known free kick scorers of your choice). The Pythons appeared to have been awarded a free kick at the edge of the box for a keeper infringement. Confident from his first goal, Riley stepped up following the decoy run of Oliver to right-foot curl the ball into the top-right corner. 4-0 at half time.
Second half and it was more of the same, although Aaron and Sammy did their best playing for the Eagles to stop it getting away. The Eagles had also made a goalkeeper change that was giving them an effective sweeper and limiting breakaway chances.
With the Pythons looking again like they couldn’t get past the Eagles, Aaron cleared the ball for the Eagles from the sideline leaving him on the floor and space in behind. Sammy noticed the gap and was able to play the ball through to Philip, who turned and drilled a calm left-foot shot low past the keeper. 5-0 after three quarters.
Fourth quarter and some tired legs started to show (Parents also started to look a little weary). In the 50th minute Leo again broke up play and gave a long toe poke forward into the path of Philip. While moments earlier he’d been clear through and hit the post, this time his 1 v 1 with the keeper ended with a smooth finish into the left-bottom corner giving him his hat-trick.
It was very nearly 7-0 moments later as a mistaken clearance by the Eagles keeper landed in front of Aaron who chipped it back over the defense to see it just miss to the right.
6-0 was the final score and a great start for the Pythons. Great goals but also a clean sheet with no shots taken by the opposition.