William Hanford (O-W-K-N)

A scratch sided was fielded against FA North title contenders Leeds Futsal club at the Bonus Arena –Hull –past Sunday.

An interesting experience for our three GFL novice 16/17 year olds Will, Reece and George.  The one game was worth a thousand words.  The opposition had an almost full squad which was predominantly Brazilian players, just one English player.  With a squad that had just met and did not have the luxury of having played together, this was a big challenge.

To the teams credit the team did better than I anticipated, with two ex professional defenders organising ‘the back’ Leeds was given a challenge when they had the ball.  The difficulty was that players that train weekly together know how to move forward as a group and how to create ‘set play’ chances.  An unorganised team can only play off ‘the cuff.’

Teams played 3 x 20 minute games.  We lost first 3-0, second 2-1 and last 4-0.  By the third game our older senior players had changed, exhausted.  Our younger players kept going but with tired limbs.

Looay Ghrib said ‘he ached more than he had ever done from a game of football the next day.’

Will, Reece and George said they had got a lot out of the experience, playing locally they had not perceived the tactical finesse and the ability they was going to come against.  Futsal was never going to be the same again.  As a coach I was delighted they had played and appreciated the standards the game can rise to, a thousand words would not have described the actual experience of that one game.

Special mention for Steve Goodwin who played superbly in goal and gave the team a base to build from.  Two shots from corners that were played back to him were hit with accuracy and ferocity that I have not seen from him before.

Hull coach Joe Duffy watched the game and then went to watch his 11 year old play 11v11 football.  He telephoned that it was like watching football on two different planets; he said his son got nothing out of the eleven aside, but if he had played futsal he would not be saying the same.

Goal Keeper Steve Goodwin

William Hanford (O-W-K-N)

Reece Parker & George Horricks (N Waltham)

Looay Ghrib (All Blacks)

Not in picture - Adam Lowthorpe (ex Hull City)

Paul Mud (ex Scunthorpe)

Danny Glen (Hull)