Vedra went into today's game with just 9 players due to Frankie being ill but full of confidence after a great performance last week. Vedra really started the game with all guns blazing. Sam put a shot just wide after 2 minutes and then followed up with a great pass to Logan who was stopped at the last minute by Cleveland Hall's classy tall centre-half. Joey then had a thumping shot brilliantly saved in the 6th minute. Vedra were completely dominant at this point with Jacob, Ollie and Corah winning every clearance and setting up Sam and James for their forward passes to Logan, Joey and Oscar. Joey in particular was very busy down the left wing and with a little more luck would've put Vedra ahead.
There is a saying in football that you have to make the most of your good spells in the game and this was well demonstrated to Vedra as a good run and cross in the 9th minute put Cleveland Hall ahead with pretty much their first foray into the Vedra half. 0-1.
This did seem to knock Vedra and Cleveland Hall had the best of the next 10 minutes or so without creating too many chances, in part due to good defending from Vedra as a team.
The last 10 minutes of the half saw Vedra back on the front foot with good runs from Oscar and Joey setting up half chances for Logan and a nice lay off from Oscar saw Sam hit a shot just past the top left hand corner of the goal.
0-1 at half-time but the Vedra parents were full of praise for their team's efforts and full of encouragement that they would be better rewarded in the second half. Unfortunately this wasn't to be as the first 10 minutes of the half saw Hall race into a 0-4 lead with 3 very similar goals, good runs down the wing before Vedra struggled to deal with the cross. This was a real kick in the teeth for Vedra but to their credit they kept going and in the next 10 minutes Logan, Joey, Sam, James and Oscar all had chances that went just wide.
Again Cleveland Hall made Vedra pay for not taking their chances. In the 50th minute only a brilliant last second tackle from Jacob after a Callum save stopped a 5th. Vedra unfortunately didn't learn the lesson as in the next 4 minutes Cleveland Hall scored 2 more goals in very similar fashion. On each occasion the initial shot was saved by Callum but Vedra were not alive enough to clear the follow up and a Cleveland Hall player poked home.
The last goal of the game was probably the best as the Cleveland Hall winger picked the ball up in his own half and went on a great run forward before finishing well despite Callum getting a hand to it. You could say that Vedra should have stopped the long run but sometimes you just have to congratulate good play from the opposition.
0-7 was a very harsh result on Vedra whose efforts deserved much more from the game especially in the first half. Cleveland Hall were very clinical and showed how best to play on the wings and cross into the box. There were again some very good performances from all of the Vedra players, who all did good things throughout the game. This week's Star Player went to Oscar for some good forward runs combined with some nice passes to set up chances for his teammates.
Onto the next game with heads still held high.