Aldersbrook Athletic Under 13s

Sunday 25th May...
saw the Aldersbrook Athletic Under 13s team play in the French provincial town of Cerizay.  Fourteen boys and ten dads made the trip - flying from Stanstead to Tours on the Saturday morning, and then driving to Cerizay - and we can all say we had an absolutely fantastic time. 

Le Chateau...

As you can see, we travelled in bone-shakers, and stayed in a hovel... but you can't have everything!

(This was a 9 bedroomed converted chateau, of which we had exclusive use).

CO Cerizay stadium

The stadium wasn't bad either.

This is the stand of Cercle Olympique de Cerizay, the Stade Honneur Roger Quintard and they kindly let the boys, and dads, use their facilities all day.

Next to this pitch was a synthetic area, where the boys played while the dads were being entertained.

Oh for such facilities in Wanstead...

The 14 man squad

Olly leads the boys out from the changing-rooms

A very European feel to the game... Boys from both teams shake hands before the start.

Captain Olly does the honours with his CO Cerizay counterpart

A capacity crowd... Kev's used to this; he's a West Ham fan!

Played in lovely weather, on a fantastic pitch and against strong opposition - some of the French boys were 14, and looked it! - the under 13s acquitted themselves really well.  The CO Cerizay players, as expected, had great touch and technique and were very fit but our boys more than matched them.
They scored first, from a counter-attack and we looked a little bit out of sorts.  But we soon re-grouped and 2 goals before half-time saw us take a well deserved lead into the break.

Harry ran a good 30 yards with the ball before cooly slotting it past the French keeper, then, just before the break, good pressure from Kieran, Bradley and Harry saw their defence give the ball away and Bradley was onto it like a shot to guide the ball into the net after beating the keeper to the loose ball.

I don't think they quite expected that half-time result and they came out for the 2nd half full of drive and commitment. We looked a bit wobbley for 12 minutes or so but some great defending from Will, John, Olly and Jake and some absolutely brilliant goalkeeping by Chibs, saw us withstand the pressure.  We then settled nicely into our game and with Brad hitting the post, should have made the game safe.  There were a couple more dodgy moments and a couple of great save from Chibs but the boys thoroughly deserved to hold on for a 2-1 win.

Everyone played their part but an outstanding display from stand-in goalkeeper Chibuzo gain him our man-of-the-match award, in what was a really fantastic game of football.

Jake pretty much summed up how all the boys felt after a very tough and demanding game.. but it was soon off for lots of lovely grub!

Unfortunately for us, the effects of a late night for the boys, a tiring 1st game and then too much food and drink saw us lose 7-0 to the same team - we were due to play their 2nd string team but apparently they were playing somewhere else.  Never mind...

L' entente cordiale: Kev enjoys some of the fantastic hospitality shown by CO Cerizay committee members and the local community.  The club and town provided us with breakfast, lunch and a bbq in the evening... and boy did we enjoy it!

After a big lunch - including beer and wine - the dads played a game against some of the French dads... except their dads weren't the dad's of the boys we played!  Our average age was 46; theirs 35.  
No surprising, then, a 10-3 defeat - not bad in the circumstances, and well done to Mark for keeping us together as a team.

Aldersbrook Athletic Under 13s - lads and dads.

A massive thanks to Roy Taylor for organising an absolutely brilliant trip.