U12's Panthers

11th April 2009
Pinhoe Panthers 0 v 6 Tiverton Town

The arrival of Tiverton presented another yardstick by which Panthers could measure the successes of recent weeks, if not by means of results but more in relation to the overall performances.

This game started fairly quietly and not to the tempo we needed really, and an early series of mistakes made generally by lack of concentration and the inability to clear our lines led to Tiverton taking an ill deserved lead. What then followed for the next 40 minutes was proof enough that Panthers have indeed made progress since the turn of the year. All of a sudden we started to win the second ball and compete with the back four and Ollie Snow outstanding. As half time approached, Tiverton scored again and a few heads seemed to drop. The half time team talk was met by a distinctly unenthusiastic group. I thought then that we may well go on and get a hammering, but after the first few minutes Panthers seemed to forget that they were miserable, and started to dominate again with Ollie May coming into his own marauding down the left and putting in some good crosses. Harry Elliott was again the heart of the central mid field and worked tirelessly as usual to break up Tivvy ball and break forward when he could. Harry has been all season our most likely goal scorer and so again today. Unfortunately it was not to be, but to be honest we were never going to win this one. What all of us can take from games such as this is a genuine resilience, which all things being well, will stand Panthers in good stead for next season.

As Panthers tired in the sun, Tiverton racked up four more goals to give the final score line a distinctly one sided look that in truth it wasn't.

Man of the match: Ollie Snow. Without doubt the most effective goal keeping display i have seen this season. In an unfamiliar position, Ollie brought off a string of fine saves, one in particular reminiscent of Gordon Banks in the 1970 World Cup Finals in Mexico. His kicking was sound and on occasion he was also a sound sweeper.

Player of Match: Ollie Snow

4th April 2009
Pinhoe Panthers 1 v 4 Heavitree
Goals Scorers: Harry Elliott

Hello all, i believe we gave Heavitree a reasonable game. Heavitree just had that extra something about them. Pinhoe equalised through Harry Elliott and then fell 3-1 behind when we had a strong penalty appeal turned down and they went straight down the other end and made the game 4-1. Many thanks to Seb for standing in for me, I hope he enjoyed his managerial debut
Player of Match: Ollie May

28th March 2009
Pinhoe Panthers 4 v 3 West Hill Wasps
Goals Scorers: Harry Elliott 2, Christain Salter, Harry Fulls

It seams along while ago since I could report good news but we finally won our first game of the season the boys have been improving since Christmas and today they got their just rewards we started brightly and went one nil up through Harry Elliott great perseverance resulted in him making and scoring the opener west hill responded well and took a 2-1 lead into the half time break the lads could have got their heads down but the opposite thing happened they went out and fought for every ball won every 50-50 tackle and played their hearts out and from a corner Christian Salter finished a shot in the top right hand corner of the net this spurned Pinhoe on and the west hill heads dropped we took full advantage of this and Harry Elliott scored his second and to top the day off a good move down the right resulted in Harry Fulls sweeping the ball into a empty net much to the delight of his watching parents west hill kept going and then scored their 3rd with the very last kick of the game. But this was Pinhoe's day and smiles on the boys faces told its own story a fantastic result in what’s been a difficult season.

Player of match: the whole team

21st March 2009
Pinhoe Panthers 1 v 2 Sidbury
Goals Scorers: Harry Elliott

Another beautiful day to play football, and with the sun on our backs Panthers put in by far the best performance of the season and came within a whisker of getting a more than deserved point. The attitude of all of the boys was first class, and right from the off we won everything in midfield through Harry and Ollie and picked up all of the second ball. I am not saying that Sidbury may have been complacent but for the first ten minutes we played them off the park........right up to the point where they managed to get themselves into our penalty box for the first time after we over committed a bit, and knocked the ball past Adam. The goal only dented our confidence for a short while, and then it was back to business, closing down, picking up lose balls and forcing errors. It was apparent on Saturday that with a little luck and a goalscorer, Panthers would without doubt have won this game by a margin. Cory and Alec both came on and made useful contributions as the second half continued in the same veign as the first. We huffed and puffed and a few goalmouth scrambles and good defending by Sidbury kept them ahead. As the second half came to a conclusion we pushed players forward to try and snatch a draw and inevitably we got caught by a brake by Sidbury. In actual fact we defended the breakaway really well and cleared the ball outside of our penalty area to about twenty five yards where Sidbury's most influential player hit as sweet a shot as you're ever likely to see at under 12 level, which rocketed past Adam and put Sidbury two up to win the game. Not so, as a flowing move started and finished by Harry Elliott immediately pulled one back for Panthers and set up a nervy finish where we still could have equalised. In the end though we ran out of time and were disappointed to have got no points from a game everyone put so much effort into. If we can replicate this performance in the weeks to come then surely we will not go the whole season without a win.

Man of the match: This is really difficult this week as every single player deserves credit for their effort and energy. However the award goes to Harry Elliott for his box to box runs throughout the game and the way he disrupted so much of Sidbury's attacking play, culminating in a fine move which resulted in a deserved goal.

Blue Moon.
Player of Match: HARRY ELLIOTT

14th March 2009
Pinhoe Panthers 1 v 5 Lympstone
Goals Scorers: Max Waterfall

It's been a while since i penned my last match report, and in some ways nothing has changed and in others much has. The 2008 season has been tough in respect that Panthers have had to get used to that losing feeling, week in and week out. Pre christmas both the performance and the result were poor. However, post christmas the performances have been steadily building both in terms of intensity of effort and attitude. There can be no doubt what so ever that anyone watching this game would not have it down as a 5 - 1 result. The start of the game, played on a beautiful spring morning but a bog of a pitch in places, saw Panthers begin nervously and unable to retain the ball. Lympstone scored to make it 0 - 1 and from that point on for the next 20 minutes of the first half and most of the second, Panthers played well and one could argue that they were the better side. The effort and attitude were superb and only the lack of a cutting edge up front prevented us scoring more than the single well worked effort finished off by Max. Adam made some excellent saves and both Joe and Jamie came on in the second half to make valuable contributions. It ended with Lympstone scoring two late goals to make the score line far more flattering than they deserved, but with this level of performance surely it cannot be long before Panthers are back on the winning trail.

Man of the match: Ollie May. Tricky but overall i thought he commanded the unfamiliar back three system and made some terrific challenges at crucial times.

Blue Moon still definately rising.
Player of Match: OLLIE MAY

21st Feburary 2009
Culm United 6 v 1 Pinhoe Panthers
Goals Scorers: Harry Elliott

For those that were watching we had belief for twenty minutes that this just might be our day we started brightly and played some excellent football kept great possession and apart from some long balls over the top of our defense Culm did not cause us many problems but as is the luck when you are at the bottom Culm broke Chris Salter made a great one on one save but the ball broke to the Culm center forward for a tap in they followed this up with two further goals which caught us on the brake big thank you for Chris going in goal Ollie Snow had a great first half before going of injured and Aaron Lobb was having his best game of the season passing and defending with a real confidence we got a break in the second half when we launched we up field and the ever running Harry Elliott battled his way to beat the keeper and 2 defenders to score for a lot of the game we more than held our own we are gaining more belief since Christmas we just need a little more luck

Well done the score did not reflect the game.

Player of match: Aaron Lobb

7th Feburary 2009
Pinhoe Panthers 0 v 3 Lympstone Eagles
Goals Scorers: Nil

Starting line up Kieran Willdigg In Goal, Ollie S, Chris,Ollie M, Max, Jamie, Aaron, Harry, Kp, Linden, Fulsy, Alec. Great to get the on the Lympstone pitch was in good nick for this fresh sat morning. Making their official debuts for Pinhoe were Max Waterfall and Kiearan Pearce once again we started of brightly and had good procession and we kept our selves in the game we coped with most things they threw at us with out creating too much our selves as the game worn on we struggled to keep tabs on their pacey front man but with bad finishing we nearly got too half time nil but on the stroke of half time one of their midfield players hit a corker and poor Kieran could only just get his finger tips to the ball just after that we had a great chance to equalise but Harry’s effort was just wide of the post, at half time Chris went into goal and it was more of the same we battled away with great spirit but near the end they broke through Chris made a great safe but the way it goes the ball broke right to the strikers feet and he tapped in for 2 nil and right at the end we conceded an own goal when a cross was deflected in by chris into his own net. All the boys performed with a much better spirit m.o.m this week went too the two Ollie’s both played well and had that bit of composure on the ball. A really encouraging result sounds daft when you lose 3-0 but you know what I mean for those that were there.

Player of match: Ollie Snow/Ollie May

3rd January 2009
Tiverton Town 10 v 0 Pinhoe Panthers
Goal Scorers: Nil

Team for this fixture was Adam,Ollie M, Kieran, Jamie, Linden, Snowy, Aaron, Harry, Kieran P, Fulsy, Andy, Alec, Joe. This fixture was switched to an away game because of the bad weather and it was nice to nice the boys again after the christmas break. Please ignore the score line this was possibly a turning point in our season in that the score line was going against us the boys did not for a change get their heads down which for us a the moment is one of the important factors. Tiverton were top of the league and play good football but they were just bigger quicker and did not panic on the ball. Their manager congratulated us on the way we tried and kept going.

Well done boys. My m.o.m goes to our goalkeeper Adam Davison whose has plenty of practice on a Saturday morning but is growing in confidence and was brave to the end if only he could kick it

Player of Match: Adam Davison

29th November 2008
Pinhoe Panthers 0 v 5 Okehampton
Goal Scorers: Nil

In a season of few positives, it seems a bit odd to talk about one in the context of this game. However, a concession of five goals is progress considering the results of late where eight seems to be the most common goal count against.
On a real pudding of a pitch the boys made their customary slow start, but were not punished immediately as they have been in the past. Some good general defending in the early stages came to nothing however when Oke took the lead after some decisive play and a quality ball into the box. In the early stages this was the difference between the two sides, as Oke were more purposeful with the ball. The second goal came after an unfortunate deflection saw the ball fall to an Oke player who lifted the ball over Adam.
Adam could easily have come in for some stick in recent weeks, given the black and white reality of the scorelines. In this match however, he made a number of really good saves, and was confident coming to get the ball on the edge of his area.
As the pitch deteriorated and everyone tired a little, Oke scored three further goals and the end result was a correct reflection of their superiority. Panthers continued battling however, and this one positive the boys can take from the game.

Man of the match: Adam gets the nod this week. It is easy to criticise goalkeepers, but Adam's display this week prevented Oke from being runaway winners. He made some outstanding saves and was brave.

Another man who deserves a mention this week is Snowy. Manager/coach/collector of money/part time referee ! and confused soul...
Called into action as referee this week he had to make decisions, slighly coach while refing and rotate the squad...who says men can't multi task...especially when they are suffering from an unfortunate bout of alcohol poisoning. Obviously not happy with the performance of Panthers, he was heard to shout, Ref! Ref! sub please.....Oh thats me.......DOH !

Blue Moon Rising....even after the derby defeat.
Player of Match: ADAM DAVISON

22nd November 2008
Pinhoe Panthers 9 v 1 Stoke Hill
Goal Scorers: Ollie Snow

Game of the day this week matched top of the league (not us) with Stoke Hill who have obviously relocated from Exeter to the land of the giants !
No one was under any illusions as to how hard this game would be on a sticky Pinhoe pitch, and a glance at the score line sugests an easy morning for the league leaders. As has happened many times this year, the score line does not fully reflect the improved overall performance, up until about 15 minutes to go.
Panthers started slowly as always and within the first ten minutes had conceded the opening goal. A flood of goals was expected but did not materialise thanks to some concerted effort on behalf of all of the players who passed the ball from back to front much better this week, in the first half at least.
Christian and Kieran were commanding in the middle and Kieran particularly is worthy of a mention for one exceptional piece of defending when he ran almost the length of the pitch to clear a well struck shot off the goal line.
Joe to was making the most of his recall to the team with a fine first half display that helped in stopping Stoke Hill from making any headway down their left wing.
The second half started with Stoke Hill still leading and to be fair from the half on, they were much the better side and passed the ball much more effectively. They scored regularly throughout the second half before a deserved consolation goal was scored by Ollie Snow after some good work down our left. A disappointing end result, but for the first 40 minutes of the game, Panthers played as well as they had done all season.

Bluemoon Rising..........

Man of the match. Christian fully deserves the accolade this week after by far his best performance of the season. He was this week, what a captain should be. Hard working, organised, encouraging and dished out some hard words to individuals not pulling their weight. He carried this through from start to finish when in the past he may have let his head drop. Well done and keep it going.

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