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Last Sunday we travelled to St Albans to take on championship side Muscle Warriors, part of the Aspire foundation. The opposition currently sits in the top half of their league. 

 

This being my first chance to see the players in competitive action the squad I selected was made up of experience mixed with new club players. These latter players are in the infancy of their Powerchair Football journey and showing great potential. This resulted in Finn and Xavier both being handed their competitive debuts. 

 

As we moved closer to kick off I called the squad in and said “No one expects us to win here, it’s going to be difficult, just stick to the fundamentals and take our opportunities when they come. Most of all go out there, learn from it and have fun.” 

 

Ok, my motivational words didn’t quite do the trick. Within 3 minutes of the game getting underway, we had conceded a goal which all came about because we weren’t set up before playing the ball out which allowed Muscle Warrior’s central player to break the lines and just nip the ball off our deepest player, striking it over the goal line.

 

Despite the early setback, I encouraged the players to remain upbeat and stick to the game plan. As the half progressed Muscle went on to score a further 2 goals both coming from set pieces. The first was from a corner on the right-hand side (12 minutes), and the second (15 minutes) shortly after came from us conceding a 2 on 1 infringement, giving Muscle Warriors a set-piece opportunity from just outside our penalty area. A Muscle Warriors winger sat on our back post and pinged off his front bumper over the goal line. 

 

Halftime then came and I stressed the point that it was only 3 - 0 and that the opposition should be out of sight but they weren’t. This was a testament to some outstanding saves and good tracking back from our more experienced players to support the goalie when needed. I told them “Imagine the score has been reset and let’s go again.”

 

We held Muscle out for a lot longer than we did in the first half as we didn’t concede again until the last quarter of the game (33 minutes) with a breakaway goal. Following the 4th the 5th and 6th followed shortly after and the game ended in a 6 - 0 defeat for us. However, the scoreline flattered Muscle because we battled hard, it was just unfortunate we couldn’t take our chances when they came.

 

This being the squad’s first competitive game in just over 9 months, I feel an enormous sense of pride because, at this stage last year, the team exited the tournament with a much heavier defeat so I can only take positives from the team’s performance. We will all use this, learn from it and come back stronger next year. 

 

Written by 

 

Jake Leonard