Under 12 Maroon vs Hythe & Dibden Youth Caracals

U12 Division 1

Today saw our U12 Maroon team travel to face Hythe & Dibden Caracals in what proved to be a tightly contested match. While the scoreline went against us, it arguably flattered the opposition, as our team demonstrated significant spirit and quality throughout the game.

We unfortunately got off to a slow start, conceding early in the third minute after a loose ball wasn't cleared, allowing the hosts to finish low past our keeper. However, the team showed great character to respond quickly, settling into the game and moving the ball confidently, using our width to great effect to apply pressure.

Our persistence paid off when a long ball forward from our keeper was chased down by our forwards causing confusion in the Hythe defence. The resulting clearance rebounded off one of our players and bounced past the stranded keeper for a deserved equaliser!

Despite evening the score, we struggled at times to link our central midfield to our attackers, often sitting a little too deep and inviting pressure. This cost us as we failed to win key tackles, allowing Hythe to restore their lead before the break. We headed into half-time behind.

After a few tactical adjustments, the girls started the second half with much-improved purpose. Our passing was sharper, we found more space, and showed the confidence to recycle play through our keeper when needed. Frustratingly, and against the run of play, Hythe managed to extend their lead.

At this point, a lesser team might have dropped their heads, but the squad kept believing. Our persistence and commitment to playing our style of football created chance after chance. The reward came when our striker, now operating deeper in midfield, produced a moment of brilliance, looping a superb shot over the keeper from outside the box to reignite our hope.

Unfortunately, we switched off briefly after the goal, conceding another soft one, but once again showed an incredible spirit to immediately respond. Good build-up play found one of our players just inside the box and they fired low past the keeper to bring the game back in reach. The final goal summed up our luck of late: a mix-up between our defender and goalkeeper led to an unfortunate own goal that sealed the score.

Despite the result, there are plenty of positives to take from this performance. It was a closely fought encounter, and our play — especially in the second half — was a big improvement on recent games. The fighting spirit and quality shown were excellent. If we can find consistency across a full match and cut out the small errors that are currently costing us goals, the results will definitely start to turn in our favour.

A huge well done to Lili-Rose who received Player of the Match for a fantastic performance. You made some brilliant runs up and down the right wing today and delivered several positive, defence-splitting passes. Keep up the great work!