Under 9's

Season 2006/7

We had been seeded in division 3 of 7 this season after winning 3 of our 4 seeding games, Yet again this has been a mixed season for us.
We Unfortunately lost Arron Helgusson shortly after our seeding games which was a bit of a blow, but true to form the team didn’t let this unsettle them and kicked of the season with a well deserved 2-0 win against Mayford, With Ben Russell & Rhys Connolly scoring there first goals of the season.
Our second Game was against Windlesham, and yet again the team put in a fantsastic performance, Our keeper Jamie Goodall was on top form making some brilliant saves, Joshua Hayes and William Edwards Philips marked Windlesham’s front man out of the game, and when he did get past them Joshua Did what he does best and put the tackle in. The new look midfield saw Matthew Wiggins and Rhys Connolly playing a central role with Steven Suarez and Jamie Wake on the wings, Between the four of them they bossed the midfield making some excellent runs, tackles and passes. Steven Suarez set up the first goal with a great tackle on the half way line and then looked up and played a corker of a through ball to Ben Russell who calmly rounded the keeper and put the ball in the back of the net, Shortly afterwards Ben Russell grabbed his second goal of the game making it 2-0.
Joe Porter and Callum Batten came on in place of Ben Russell and Matthew Wiggins and made an immediate impression on the game, within 5 minutes it was 3-0 after a solo effort by Jamie Wake.
Result 3-0 to Byfleet,
Byfleet Village top of the table 2 games played 6 points!!

Our next game was against Woking Cougars who we always have a competitive game against. Last season saw us Lose at home to them but win away.

True to form we had a real battle with them and the game finished as a draw.

We played Yately Dragons next and lost 4-2, we showed great spirit in this game with Rhys Connolly scoring an awesome free Kick and Steven Suarez scoring a great goal.

There after we somehow managed to lose our way a little and had a series of games where we should have Killed teams off, we then went through a 4 week period where we just couldn’t score a goal.

We managed to stick at it and get some results and also got through to the runners up cup final against Woking cougars. When we last played cougars they beat us 4-0 in the return game at there ground in the league, So this was a game that we was really up for.
We played really well, in what was a very tight game, we went 1-0 down and managed to come back to 1-1 with Ben Russell equalising with a cracking goal, Both Steven Suarez and Callum Batten had an outstanding game with some excellent crunching tackles going in, Rhys as usual was the engine of the team with his forward runs and strikes from distance, whilst Matthew Wiggins was playing some very clever passes to Ben. Joe Porter and Jamie Wake never gave up and Joshua as always was solid at the back. William made 2 world class saves which kept us in the match.
With 1 minute to go, just as I was starting to think about how I would deal with extra time, the killer blow came and cougars scored, Byfleet lost 2-1.
Our Top Scorer of the season was Ben Russell with 10 goals to his name, closely followed by Rhys Connolly who was on 7.

Despite our finishing position the boys have done really well this season, Matthew Wiggins has had to adapt and play in a new position, Steven Suarez was outstanding in the second half of the season in my view
winning man of the match on many occasions. William came in halfway through the season as the no1 keeper and has been awesome, making saves that any Premiership keeper would be proud of. Joe Porter and Callum Batten who have just really come in to the side this season have gelled in nicely, and played really well.

I would like to thank all the players for all their hard work they have put in at training and matches and all the parents and coaches for their support.
Special thanks to John Wiggins for taking on the role of fixtures organising & Laura for dealing with the subs.

Stefan Russell
U8’s Manager