With no scheduled league game today, the under 17's made the long journey to Kirkstall for a 10:30 kick off.
After a couple of recent thrashings despite last week's improved performance, the team were hoping to build on that momentum with a more competitive game.
The opposition are currently holding up division 3 but they were well organised and moved the ball around very well, stringing together some quality passes and getting within shooting distance on several occasions in the first five minutes. An early penalty was blasted wide and it quickly became clear that Kirkstall's quality just wasnt quite filtering down to their final finish.
With the OWLS defence quickly adapting following an early Kirkstall goal, the game soon opened up and Ethan bagged the first of his hat trick for OWLS 1-1.
Not one person played badly today and whilst some work is still needed on accepting that the man dressed in black is in charge, the OWLS largely let the football do the talking.
Kirkstall were no pushovers though and their determination made for a very competitive game.
Kirkstall had much joy getting the ball in to the OWLS half, only to be dissapointed by some stoic defending from Lennie and Will. With the two centre backs receiving strong support from Aidan and Mason at CDM, the two wing backs, Corey on the right and Jamie on the left were afforded the time and space to push forward in the OWLS attacks and particularly down the right, some clever one-twos with Max led to some superb searching crosses and assists from both players.
In fact most of the OWLS success came from the right today with player of the match Knowlesy putting in some serious work to make mincemeat out of the opposition and narrowly miss a hat trick, were it not for a horrendous bobble sending the ball over the bar by millimetres.
This didn't stop the opposition from launching some promising attacks but stand in keeper Lewis stayed alert throughout the game and was more than up to the "sweeper keeper" challenge!
With the score at 4-1 Kirkstall's second penalty was converted to narrow the deficit slightly before some deft touches, skill and careful passing from Jack, set up a fifth for OWLS. 5-2.
Ever present on the edge of the box today was Mason, who came agonisingly close to increasing OWLS' tally with a couple of shots which went narrowly wide.
Credit to Kirkstall though, who's league position belies some quality football and a quality team in general. They battled right to the end and came close on several occasions before OWLS had the final say with a superbly well taken dink in to the back of the net from newcomer Wayne. 6-2.
A very convincing and promising performance today from the lads who should realise what they are now capable of, given some positive attitudes and composure. On show today were some good communication, teamwork, and positivity and although we played well, the team should be mindful that they were afforded a lot of time on the ball. Something that gave us time to remain composed, focused, and put together some quality passing. Next week we face league leaders Ebor Gardens FC who I'm sure will not afford us those luxuries. We will need to step up a level and play the same quality football, but with added urgency and desire.
Well done team😀🦉⚽️