Home >
Herne Bay United Blogs > Bubbles' Blog
Bubbles' Blog
Hi! I'm Bubbles, mascot of the Under 11's team. With all my outfield players moving up from the under 9's team to the under 11's I've been promoted as well! We'll be playing in the Eastern Counties league and the Southern Counties league. Some of my players will hopefully be representing the club in the National Cup and playing for Southern counties team in the Inter Regional Tournament.
My first important job is to introduce you to the team. They are: Tom Barton, Charley Bassom, Connor Botting, Luca Commentucci, Britany Dyball, Jarod Dyball, Jocie Greenwood, David Martindale, and Jamie McVey. Tom, Charley, Connor and Jocie all have several years' experience in Eastern and Southern Counties leagues while Luca, David and Jamie all played in the Southern County league for the first time last season. Britany and Jarod are both new to Herne Bay United teams and Jarod is our new goalkeeper.
Throughout the season I'll be reporting from all of our matches to let you know how the team get on.
My paws are crossed for a fun and enjoyable season.
Before the big European League match the under 11's entertained the crowd with an exciting and close fought game. All of my team were involved along with Max, Sam and Michael who play in the under 13's but are still under 11, and Rhys who played his first competitive game as goalie.
The Blues took an early lead through Max, then Jamie got their second. The scores stayed the same for quite a while but eventually Max scored again giving the Blues a three goal lead. However, the Whites were determined to get back in the game and Charley and Tom each scored, Tom's in the last 30 seconds of the half, meaning Whites trailed 2-3 at the break. Max scored his hat-trick at the beginning of the second half but the Whites got two more goals through Tom and Charley to level the scores. Everyone wanted to win so there was a very determined end the the match. Finally Max scored the winner with two minutes to go; final score Blues 5-4 Whites. It was a great game to watch and was enjoyed by the crowd.
Blue team: Britany, Connor, Jamie, Jocie, Max, Michael, Rhys
White team: Charley, David, Jarod, Luca, Sam, Tom
Scorers: Max (4), Charley (2), Tom (2), Jamie (1)
We played our first tournament of the season at Cambridge Regional College and Cottenham were our hosts. There was a viewing balcony where I could get a good view of the rink apart from the bit immediately below us which was hidden by the design of the balcony! We were three players short for the tournament so we roped in Charlie from the Adders to help us out. Although she is over 11, Eastern Counties rules mean that she can play in an Under 11 team during her first year as an Under 13.
Our first game was against Norwich with Connor being the captain, and the team took a little while to get used to playing together - this being the first time they had done so competitively. The team had to work in defence but Jarod was doing well in goal and the others were all working hard too. We didn't get many chances to score in the first half but Jocie, David and Luca all had a go. The second half gave both teams plenty of opportunity to score but it was a bit disappointing that Norwich did first. However we followed it with a well-worked team goal, Charlie finishing to score our first goal of the season. Norwich then got two more but then Charlie got us another, helped into the net by the goalie's stick! Connor, Charlie and David tried hard to score an equaliser and Britany and Jocie were keeping our defence strong but at the end of the game we'd lost 2-3.
Next we faced Cottenham who seemed to have much bigger players that we did! Luca was captain this time and it was a much faster game. There were guite a few chances for both sides but Cottenham scored first. A penalty was awarded against us but Jarod saved it. Unfortunately Cottenham were able to score from the rebound and finally the team's excellent defending slipped and a third was scored while all of our players raced to get back from Cottenham's half. Jarod saved a shot off his helmet and David had several good attempts at goal but we were down 0-3 at half time. The second half started with Jarod making lots of saves and keeping us in with a chance. Cottenham scored two more goals, one where there was a total lack of defence again. The team kept pushing though and were finally rewarded when David scored near the end of the game. Unfortunately there wasn't much time left to score any more so we lost 1-5.
Our third game was against Ely and they have four over-age girls in their team so they were definitely much bigger than most of our players! Jocie was captain this time and we had a great start to the game when David scored after just a few minutes. A while later Ely took a shot at goal which was partly stopped by Jarod and then flicked out of the goal by Connor. From where we were watching it looked like the ball had crossed the line and they later admitted that it had! Luckily the referee hadn't seen this so we remained in the lead. This game was very evenly matched and was played from end-to-end the whole time. The team were becoming more confident with their passing and defending but they were still finding it hard to finish their shots. We still led at the half time break and had several close attempts at goal in the second half; Luca's shot hit the goalie's helmet and Charlie's hit the post. Ely had several shots go wide and we had to have a quick time-out to untangle Jarod's skate from the net! Then one of the Ely players' stick got wedged in Luca's skate. Right in the very last seconds Connor nicked in a goal and we won our first match 2-0, also getting us two points in the league. We almost didn't get both of these as the timekeepers had given our second goal to Ely. Luckily one of the referees spotted the mistake but it gave everyone a lesson that when they are captain they should check the scoresheet before they sign it!
The final game was against Kings Lynn B and it started disastrously for us when they scored in the first few seconds. However, with their increasing confidence the team got stuck into the game and had a number of attempts before Luca scored and David followed with his third of the day. Kings Lynn scored again to equalise but the near the end Britany's shot was stopped but Luca was able to slot home the rebound so we finished the half 3-2 up. In the second half the team dominated the play. We had a couple of shots into the side netting but David scored again when his shot bounced in off the goalie's stick and Connor wrapped up the game and the day's scoring with his second. Britany and Jarod ensured Kings Lynn were unable to add to the their total so we ended the day on a high with a 5-2 win.
Despite the hesitant start the team did really well. You could see the way they all improved as the matches went on and they were working together as a team. We finished the day in fourth place - level on points with two other teams but not with such a good goal difference. It was a great first tournament and I can't wait for the next one in December.
Bubbles' Player of the Tournament: To be annouced
Bubbles' Scorers: David (4), Charlie (2), Connor (2), Luca (2)
