Text at top (next game etc)

Next Game: Banbury Away On Friday March 29th Kick-Off 3.00pm

Thursday, November 27, 2014

Young Bulls gain point at league leaders

UITC remain only unbeaten team in the league after hard fought point at Burton Albion

This week made me realise the ups and downs of being a manager. A great point at the league leaders made me proud of the lads, but the run up to the game was as stressful as the last 10 minutes when we were hanging on. Monday morning and I was happy, I had a squad of 15 to take to Burton which is a luxury for us this season but by kick-off I was down to 12, and two of them had to speak to physio Jonny Evans in the warm-up! Firstly we lost Will Lawley through ill discipline on Monday morning and then at night it was clear Alex Lilwall wouldn't get over his strain from last week in time to play. Then Tuesday morning, captain Joe Davies injured a toe which turned out to be a fracture, seeing him out for probably 6-8 weeks. Losing 3 players that would of started the game was not a good start to huge game, but I was still confident we could win the game.

The game started brightly, Burton are a good team and caused us problems with something I've been trying to get us to do. As soon as they could they were trying to slide the ball in behind our defence for willing runners and if we weren't on our game they would of succeeded. After the initial 10 minutes we started to create chances, Robbie Trumper should of done better when well placed at the back post before Liam Taylor cleared off our line as Burton broke through our defence.Tom Gameson should of put us 1-0 up when Matty Owen did well to find him 6 yards out but Tom managed to miskick and Trumpers resulting effort was cleared off the line in a bright 20minute spell. Both teams had a few half chances before halftime and Benn Pugh had to make a superb save to keep it level as we entered halftime, tipping the ball onto the bar when it seemed they would score for certain.

We knew in the second half we would have to be strong in defence, and if we weren't we would of lost the game. Burton had the better of the second half, constantly putting our back 4 under pressure. Benn Pugh made another great save and Liam Taylor and Simon Morgan both had to clear off the line to keep us in the game. Going forward we were poor, clearances weren't getting past the halfway line and we lost too many individual battles in midfield which made the game hard for us. However we still could of nicked a goal with Matty Owen shooting straight at the keeper when clean through, Gameson mis timing a header when well placed and Carlos Moreira looking sharp coming on as sub after a lengthy injury. However it was down to our back 4 and Pugh in goal to get us the point, we need to learn how to battle further up the pitch but the rear guard was outstanding in the second half.

Mentions are due for Chris May and Matty James, who filled in for Joe Davies as centre half and captain, as both were different class yesterday and gave us our 6th clean sheet in 11 games this season, a great achievement! With hopefully a bigger squad in 2 weeks when we host Burton at home, I think we can improve and beat them and we will take a lot from this game being the first team to take points off them at home and the first team to stop them scoring this season! I'm proud of the lads for that

Now we turn our attention to getting everybody fit and ready for Chelsea away next week. playing against Chelsea at any level is a good experience and everybody will be looking forward to it. We are looking for a coach to take us as we only have a17 seater mini-bus available and to go there with intentions to win we need to take a full squad of 17, plus the coaching staff so if anyone can help with a 22 seater bus and driver please contact us at UITC either on Twitter at night @HUFCCommunity or call 07917412823 and ask for Steve, any help would be appreciated.

Team: Benn Pugh, Liam Taylor, Matty James, Chris May, Simon Morgan, Lewis Fletcher, Tom Jenkins, Matty Owen, James Obern, Tom Gameson, Robbie Trumper
Subs: Carlos Moreira