Surrey County Cup (under 15s): Ash Utd 1 - 4 Farnborough FC

After a couple of disappointing performances, it was good to see normal service resumed. The under 15s squad at Farnborough FC is stuffed full of players with huge potential and the coaching challenge is all about getting the best out of those players, so that they realise that potential.

Sometimes, results will go against us, but our coaching job is not to look at the league table, but to focus on the players, train hard and well and measure progress each week on the pitch. Today, versus a strong Ash Utd side, Farnborough FC showed just how good they are. Ash Utd are second in Surrey Primary Premier Division with one game in hand having won 4, drawn 1 and lost none - scored 11 goals, conceded 4. Today, our players doubled their "goals conceded" and played some lovely football, with sweeping moves across the pitch and through the thirds.

We made a slight adjustment to the system of play today - not because of results - but because in the last game we did not create as much as I would like to see from a team that likes to play attacking football and score more than the opposition (...as opposed to conceding less). If the players understand what we want to do better by switching to what they perceive as 4-3-3, then so be it. My view is that 11 players who are better than the opposition 11 players, should win. Kenny and I are certainly in agreement that the boys have developed sufficiently to start to solve technical challenges themselves - during a match if necessary. All seem more comfortable with this system of play though.

From a "goals conceded" perspective, out of the 6 conceded in the last 3 matches, 4 have been from corners/crosses and 2 from individual slips in the last third. We will continue to work on defending corners in training, but my long-term view is that football is a game of mistakes and every team will make individual errors at some point. Just as referees will make mistakes too (...some more than others, of course!)

To solve this, our mantra is "let's get better at what we do" and then an individual error will not matter, as we'll be 2 or 3 goals ahead. If we play the match in the opponents' half, then errors matter less, but 80 minutes of constant pressure is not very realistic and as Herbert Chapman once said: "You can attack for too long!"

So, marching on, we'll continue the work about when to press/when to drop as a unit (defending); counter attacking and the variety of attacking play. Kenny will develop the latter two themes in training tomorrow evening, while I attend the Licensed Coaches Conference at St. George's.

Let's continue our good representation at training with as few texts in the afternoon to me about absence as possible and I'm sure we'll achieve our objectives ;-)