We travelled to Newton Longville this Saturday to play our final league match for this season. The weather and pitch conditions were very good for the team, and the squad were all rearing to go for it.

The starting line-up was Joel in goal, Oliver A, AD & Michael defending, Josh, Toby, Samir and Harry covering midfield, and Jesel up front.

The pitch was a little smaller than we have been used to recently, which did make the playing area more crowded. This made the Colts think a little harder about how best to build their attacks and we saw good use of the wide players and some great examples of switching play from one side to the other. Josh opened the scoring at around 13 minutes, and this settled the Colts firmly in the opposition half of the pitch.. As the half contiued there was some excellent passing around the Newton Longville defence, with Jes, Harry and Sam linking well. We had saved shots from Jes, Toby & Harry in this half, with Sam netting the second Colts goal. The Newton Longville keeper was kept very busy and the opposition team found it very hard to keep possession, especially with Toby, AD, Oliver and Michael breaking their attacks with good control and support for each other. Subs Katie and James were on for Jesel and AD, with James scoring another good goal as a sub.

The second half lineup was AD in goal, Oliver A, Katie & Michael defending, Josh, Toby, Samir and Harry covering midfield, and Jesel up front. The Colts settled in well and quickly re-established their dominance in mid-field and forward areas. The early second half goals came from Samir, Toby and Joel. The opposition did manage a couple of promising attacks but were off target, or easily managed by an excellent Colts defence.

The match finished with a second clean sheet for the Colts, and a six goal credit! This crowned an excellent season for the Colts in the league and really bodes well for the future development of the team. It's going to be important for the team members to use the summer break to play as much sport as possible to maintain the fitness levels we have built this season, so I suggest parents encourage them to keep of the X-Boxes if the weather is good!

Well done team - every player did a great job in this match and played their part very well to ensure a good win for the Shanger!