Belhaven U-12 6-a-side tournament.

 

 

 

  A first run-out for the U-12s came in the form of the annual 6-a-side indoor tournament held at Merchiston. The matches were twelve minutes in length and were generally fast and furious.

 

  Our first match was to be a tough start, against the tournament favourites with home advantage on their side, Merchiston. Going one-nil down after five minutes, the boys weathered the storm and some good pressure and produced a scrappy goal for Freddie Rogers who nicked the ball past the Merchy defenders and into the roof of the net. Merchy soon regained their lead, however and the boys looked sluggish as they went 3-1 behind, due to poor man-marking and not getting up and down the court enough. Shortly before the end, however, a super move was finished neatly by Tom Stodart who slid the ball home from close-range. 2-3 and game on! Unfortunately, despite some good late pressure from the Blues, the clock beat us and so we started out our campaign with a 3-2 loss.

 

                                                                                 

  After some quick reminders to Dougal Forsyth who was playing in goal, to use the space of his area, and to the other boys to make themselves more available for the ball when the keeper was in possession, we were soon on for our second match, against St. Mary’s of Melrose. Again we failed to take the game to the opposition at first, and St. Mary’s took a deserved lead early on. Caspar Rogers, however, finished clinically to level the scores and at the break we went in even. In the second half, however, old demons of sitting too deep and not playing with the required belief seemed to come back to the lads and we shipped two goals in quick succession to give St. Mary’s a rather flattering 3-1 win.

 

  The boys came away frustrated, as they had narrowly lost two matches for which they had had the talent to win, had they only had a little more belief in themselves, and more effective finishing in front of goal.

 

 Third up were Loretto, who were an unpredictably hot-and-cold side on the day. The Loretto which turned up to play Belhaven took the lead through a disputable penalty, given against Tom Stodart for handball. This had the effect of galvanising the boys and after a great move involving most of the outfield players, George Cuthbert slid in for an equaliser. For the rest of the game, Belhaven pounded at the Loretto door, and Cuthbert was inches away from a repeat goal with some excellent anticipation. Alas, despite the pressure, the Loretto goal stood firm and 1-1 was the final result. A hand injury to Stodart forced him off but this was the only negative in a much-improved performance by Belhaven, who were very unlucky not to bag all three points.

 

 

                                                                                 

 

 Our final game was against Ardvreck and by now the lads were in the swing of things. Stodart bagged another goal early on, and Caspar Rogers got his second of the competition too with a neat finish, to put the Blues 2-0 up by half-time. The pressure was relentless from Belhaven, and the lads cut the pitch in half as they poured forward in wave after wave of attacks, encamped in the Ardvreck half. Superb close control from both Rogers boys and incisive passing from Stodart opened Ardvreck up time and again, and only bad luck and great goalkeeping kept the score at two, when being six or seven goals to the good wouldn’t have flattered East Lothian’s finest.

 

 

  So the boys finished the day on a high, with a win and a draw, after a pair of close matches earlier in the tournament. We need to remember in future to get up the pitch and support our team-mates at all times, and not leave any player unmarked in defence at any time, or we will pay a high price. Had we kept our concentration all of the way through, and had the self-belief in our passing and shooting with which we ended the day, we could very well have gone through this tournament undefeated. As it was, the boys gave their all and acquitted themselves well when representing the school. Very well done to all who took part.

 

  Excellent facilities at Merchiston were backed up by a superb turnout from the Belhaven parents who were out in number to support the boys – thank you all for coming to cheer the boys on.

 

Squad: Dougal Forsyth, Alasdair Johnston, Douglas Donaldson, Tom Stodart, Freddie Rogers, Caspar Rogers, George Cuthbert, Andrew Watson.