Tough Shift but They Can Still Be Proud

Superb effort by the Dragons this morning against a very strong, organised and talented Crossley team. This is a team that is unbeaten and already beaten Dudley Hill and Leeds Macabbi during this Inter League.

The Dragons were on top during the early exchanges, with Crossley defending well and trying to catch the Dragons on the break. An early freekick, should have been a penalty Ben ;), provided an early opportunity but was just wide from Edward. The 0-0 score at the first break was probably a little unfair to the Dragons.

The second quarter carried on in the same vain with few chances but great work rate, tackling and running by the Dragons. Crossley were lucky to take the lead when the ball broke to one of their players to score whilst unmarked after some good tackling by our defence. 0-1 at the halftime break but really the Dragons deserved to be ahead and only some fine defending and narrow misses had prevented them from scoring.

For the first time during the game Crossley took the upper hand during the third quarter as the Dragons seemed to lose their shape and on more than one occasion excellent defending by Harry T kept them in the game. Crossley scored a second after some great play saw their player break free and score a cracking effort. It wasn't all one sided though as the Dragons went close through a couple of Edward efforts going just wide.

The final quarter was a much more open with both teams having chances. Harry MS unfortunately could keep his shot down for the Dragons best chance of the game. As was the story of the morning the Dragons unfortunately couldn't take their chances but Crossley took there's to make it 0-3 at the final whistle.

I'm still absolutely buzzing from this morning's performance, the boys did the team and themselves proud. Had they taken their chances then the result could have easily been in our favour. To perform like they did against such a strong team was fantastic. Harry T was again outstanding in defence reading the game and breaking up the Crossley attacks. William supported Harry T in defence superbly showing good awareness of when to pass the ball out and when to clear the lines. He also made a solid cameo in goal making a couple of great saves. Thomas was on cracking form today, great tackling and passing, constant work rate and also a neat performance in goal all leading to a player of the match performance. Lennon never stopped running! Great runs down the channels, proving a constant thorn in the Crossley side, so much so that they took to just hacking him down to stop him! He also worked hard at getting back to help his defence out. Harry MS started in goal and did an amazing job making several great saves. When he came out his work rate and running caused problems for Crossley. Tough game for Edward, bright and threatening during the early exchanges but Crossley were a tough opposition and he was constantly marked by two very good defenders. He still managed to create a few chances and on another day would have had two or three goals (we are literally talking just a matter of inches).

Superb team, super performance and a very happy coaching team