Week Twelve, Manchester United

This week we played Man U on Pitch 2.

The winter ills and chills struck again and we only fielded 6 players...

Team 1	Team 2
William(c)	Natasha(c)
Felix	Jessica
Zaqiy	Zachary

With a guest from Man U playing with team 1, we ran 4v4 and 3v3 on two pitches.

Team one experienced a rather one-sided loss, but worked together well. Team two looked more convincing, with multiple goals apiece for Jessica, Natasha, and a Player of the Day goal-scoring performance for Zachary.

Check out our Week 12 slideshow:AV Week 12 on PhotoPeach

Week Eleven, Spurs

This week we played Spurs on Pitch 3.

It was good to have an almost everyone back on deck this week:

Team 1	Team 2
Caleb(c)	Nicholas(c)
Felix	William
Zachary	Raphael
Jessica	Mackay
Natasha	Kees
	Zaqiy

The Spurs team fielded 9 players so Zaqiy volunteered to help them balance out their squad - and played an outstanding game for them, looking very dangerous on defence!

We also saw some great goals scored by Raphael, Felix, Caleb, and a great Player Of The Day performance by William, showing an increased involvement in the mid-field and a willingness to attack the ball. Keep it up!

Check out our Week 11 slideshow:

Week Ten, Wolves

This week we played Wolves on the relocated(and somewhat muddier) Pitch 4.

With winter chills and ills still doing the rounds, each team had 9 players available, so we played 4v4 and 5v5 games.

Team 1	Team 2
Caleb(c)	Mackay(c)
Felix	William
Zachary	Jessica
Raphael	Zaqiy
	Nicholas

Team 1 had a great game with lots of goals coming for Caleb and Felix, and some great defensive and midfield play from Raphael and Zachary.

Team 2 had a harder game, but we saw some great persistent attacking play from Jessica, some good combinations in the mid-field from Mackay, William and Zaqiy, and an unbelievable steel-curtain Player of the Day effort, with save after save, by Nicholas on defence.

Check out our slideshow and gameplay video for Week 10.

Week Nine, Leeds

This week we played Leeds on Pitch 5.

Check out our slideshow for Week 9.

With lots of players away sick, AV and Leeds were each able to field 6 players for a well contested match. We saw some great attacking play from everyone, and spent most of the game in Leeds' half. Felix and Caleb came away with 2 goals apiece and Raphael also scored in the second half.



Our Player of the Day showing some great defence and getting to grips with the throw in ball, was Mackay.

Hopefully we see everyone back and feeling fit next week! Don't forget our photo session this Tuesday, when we will meet at Riverhills at 5:15pm. (Remember clean gear, including boots and socks!). So NO midweek practice this week.

Next Saturday - we play Wolves on Pitch 4. See you there!

Week Eight, Everton

After two weeks of cancelled games, we came back to play against Everton on Pitch 6.

Once again we had a few players away sick, but it was good to have Natasha back and straight into the action after a big break. We managed to field two teams for 4-and-5-a-side games with players from Everton helping us out on each pitch.

Felix found the back of the net 4 times on one, and we had a Player of the Day performance, with a goal and some great defence, from Caleb on the other.

Hopefully we see everyone back and feeling fit next week! Don't forget our photo session this Tuesday, when we will meet at Riverhills at 5:15pm. (Remember clean gear, including boots and socks!).

And don't forget our practices too - we've been playing some fast running 1v1 and 2v2 games, and some robbing the nest and great shooting and passing drills. Keep an eye out for the players who are at practice regularly - I think they're learning to use some tricky parts of their bodies, above the ankles! No practice this week though - be on time for the photos!

And this Saturday - we play Leeds on Pitch 5. See you there!

Week Seven, Arsenal

This week we had a hard game against a full strength squad from Arsenal on Pitch 6.

We had quite a few players away sick or with family commitments this weekend, so in the first half we played Jessica (c), Zaqiy, Raphael and Mackay on Pitch A in a 4-a-side format while Felix and Zachary joined a pickup team from Arsenal on Pitch B. In the second half we swapped Jessica and Zaqiy out to give Felix and Zachary a run with the Aston Villa squad.

Here is our Week 7 slideshow:

Some of our players were struggling to find their feet this week, but we might be seeing some fatigue from the coughs and colds that are doing the rounds. We saw some great defensive work from Raphael and a Player of the Day attacking performance in the first half from Zaqiy.

Hopefully we see everyone back and feeling fit after this week and we do some more work on our passing and attacking drills, following Zaqiy's example of keeping the ball heading toward the opposition end.

Next weekend we play Everton on the same pitch (6). See you all there!

Week Six, Newcastle

This week we played Newcastle on Pitch 5.

Thanks to Kerina for all the photos - lots of action shots.

Week 6 on PhotoPeach



This week we split the squad:

Team 1	Team 2
Zachary(c)	Kees(c)
Nicholas	Mackay
Caleb	William
Raphael	Daniel
Zaqiy	Felix
	Jessica

We had some outstanding play on defence from Nicholas and Kees, some great attacking play from Raphael and a really improved all round effort from everybody. Big thanks to Daniel and our Player of the Day, Jessica, for helping us out and playing a half for the other team.

Our passing drill is coming along. At practice on Tuesday we changed the diamond into a zig-zag down the field and the passes became relays to the goal, which seemed to work well.

Also a big shout out to our helpers at practice, Lachlan and Sebastian. It's great of you guys to come and share your skills with our team whenever you can.

Next week we play Arsenal on Pitch 6, see you there!