Airbus U8s – Connah’s Quay Nomads (A)
U8’s travelled to Connah’s Quay to play Nomads, very entertaining games from two good sides, lots of good passages of play and some excellent goals scored.

Man of the match on pitch 1 - Benji Evans
Man of the match pitch 2 - Alexander Howells
Well done boys

Airbus U9s – Connah’s Quay Nomads (A)
The u9 WingMakers had a short and successful journey to Connah’s Quay this week.
The u9’s were brilliant from start to finish, displaying some great football by playing the airbus way. They created plenty of chances not only by playing some great football but counter pressing extremely well making it difficult for Nomads to get control of the game.

MOTM went to Reagen Thomas for his creativity and bravery on and off the ball.
And Jacob Rowland Jones for his quality and intelligence on the ball partnered with clinical finishing.

Airbus U10s - Connah's Quay Nomads (A)
The Airbus squad started really brightly, defending well and pressing from the front which led to 2 goals! We dropped our intensity in the second 1/4 and weren’t as effective with the ball. A great game of two halves!

The second game saw us start similar to how we ended the previous - quite slow out the blocks. We managed to get into a good rhythm in the last quarter and moved the ball well using the pivot in the middle to switch the play.

MoM - Jude worked tirelessly up front to press the opposition and earned his rewards by scoring two goals. Well done! ??

Match report - Wingmakers
Started the game of really slow and struggled to get going in the first 20 mins, after half time lads looked more energetic and started brightly and played lovely combination football but struggled to find the net after counterattacking nomads on a number of occasions.

2nd game was much better the lads started much brighter and linked up with each other well scoring some amazing team goals and was great to watch.

Overall lads done excellent especially playing in positions some of them aren’t used too.

MOTM Arthur who defended excellent and shown great leadership.

Airbus U11s – Connah’s Quay Nomads (A)
Saturday was a short trip to neighbouring Connah’s Quay Nomads. I thought we started strong and always looked to play forward on the front foot competing well and causing problems for Nomads, but as the game went on our work rate and communication reduced.

Nomads were excellent and we really struggled to find our rhythm. A combination of poor decision making and limited movement made it difficult to beat the home team’s press. There were a few brief moments when we showed glimpses of our true selves.
However, these were too few and far between to have any real impact on the outcome of the game. Overall good learning opportunities and have given us things to work on in the coming weeks.

Player of the Week - George Brooks. George stood up to the challenge with playing the year up by producing some superb saves, George was alert and looked really comfortable when playing out from the back

Airbus U13s – Connah’s Quay Nomads (A)
The boys travelled to Connah’s Quay to play Nomads looking to avenge the narrow 3-2 home defeat earlier in the season.

The opening minutes the boys had to maintain discipline and defend resolutely as Nomads camped in our defensive third, the boys quickly settled and began to get our passing game going hitting the bar early on.

The deadlock was broken 20 minutes in when Harry Williams scored after an assist from Fynley Wardle, 8 minutes later and it was 2-0 Harry Williams again scored from through ball from Macsen Baker.

The boys settled now and had sustained possession in the Nomads half and just before half time Harry Williams completed his hat trick finishing at the far post from a cross delivered by Dafydd Edwards.

Second half was only seconds old when the boys pressed the Nomads kick-off and won the ball. Frank Jones slipping Harry Williams through for his fourth goal of the day, 4-0 airbus.

Several more chances were created during the second half and the boys kept their clean sheet before Leo Killick got Airbus’ 5th goal from a corner delivered by Fynley Wardle for his second assist of the day, 5-0 final score.

All the squad played well and executed the game plan to perfection, Players of the week went to Harry Williams – 4 goals, a constant threat and very good communication with his team mates
Fletcher Jones – top class defending and started many of our moves forward.

Airbus U14s – Connah’s Quay Nomads (A)
The under 14’s travelled to the Quay 3g for a teatime kick off under the lights.
Putting football aside first, the teams stood and paid tribute to those who allowed us the freedom we have today from the sacrifices they made when they served our country.
As the game begun Airbus retained the ball well with Joe Farrell testing the goalkeeper with a long-range effort, and it was Junior Kelly who reacted quickest to slot home the rebound for a 1-0 lead.

The only real goal action of a cagey first half where most of the football was played in the middle of the pitch.

Out for the second half and Airbus failed to deal with a corner adequately with Nomads poking the ball home from close range for the equaliser.

The momentum switched somewhat, and Airbus lost concentration during a vital period of the game, a long ball was safely cleared by Charlie Wild but Nomads reacted quickest to the second phase before the ball was eventually slotted past our goalkeeper to give the hosts a 2-1 lead.

We searched for our patterns of play and from a corner Charlie Wild got himself into the right area to equalise for his first academy cup goal of the season.

The game was back and forth and admittedly lacked quality in possession from both sides, Nomads with a corner that was calmly caught by our keeper before the referee awarded a penalty for a foul off the ball and Nomads slotted home for 3-2.

A disappointing end to a disappointing performance overall but that only serves us with areas to address and learn from moving forward.

Player of the week – Junior Kelly
Junior has been outstanding of late in both training and games, not only from his consistent application of work rate and technical ability but he is a player that is showing good leadership skills and mental strength. Attributes that we haven’t really seen from him since joining us at the start of the season which shows us and himself that his development is on a really positive trajectory as he continues to pour effort into his Airbus journey.

Under 15s – Connah’s Quay Nomads (H)
On the day that we remember all those who sacrificed so much for our freedom. There was an impeccable minute’s silence followed by a competitive game between 2 good teams at the Hollingsworth Group Stadium.

Both teams cancelled each other out in the early stages with very little goal action at both ends. Defensively out of possession, we were solid with GK Jack Booth giving excellent detail to the back line of Sam Ibbitson, Evan Roberts & Beau Rushton. In possession we played out from the back well with numerous examples of success, but we struggled to use the ball in forward positions to really hurt our opponents.

If we did have any success it came from wide areas with Caiden Baker-Williams & Jack Davies both getting in behind the opposition fullbacks. A moment of quality then occurred when we played through the heart of the Nomads midfield, as Harri Edwards dropped in and took the defender with him, Fin Hayes received the ball from Beau Rushton in a deep position and played a sublime forward pass into the space created, right into the path of the forward run by Max Murray, who scored with a well taken first time shot across the keeper into the bottom left hand corner of the net. An excellent goal. Nomads had an effort from distance that was well saved by our GK Jack, but apart from that never really threatened our goal in the first half. 1-0 @ half time.
We knew that Nomads were going to come back at us in the 2nd half and we had to soak up their pressure and ride the storm.

Goalkeeper Bailey Davies made 2 good saves during this period, whilst the opposition keeper also made a good save from a well struck Rhys Ineson free kick.

We started to play ourselves back into the game with Fin Geary & Nataniel Rakowiecki finding good areas in the centre of midfield, whilst our defenders Aaron Charles & Rhys Ineson marshalled the back line to ensure we were solid.

Both teams had half chances from distance & from the 2nd phases of corners but these all amounted to nothing in the end. Airbus started getting joy on the right-hand side where Joseph Pridding got into forward positions, and this stretched the Nomads defence.

Our 2nd goal started with our throw in the right back position, where we played away from pressure, back into Bailey Davies who found Player of the week Alex Mossman in the centre of midfield. Alex played a lofted ball out to the left-hand side where Jack Davies carried the ball forward. Jack then curled a lovely, weighted ball into the penalty spot area where Jake Pendlebury struck the ball 1st time and then reacted to another good save from the Nomads keeper to slot home our 2nd. An excellent phase of play from the lads.

A game with very few chances for both teams but on the day we took ours and won the match 2-0. We have been working on our defensive balance over the past fortnight and there was clear evidence that the lads have taken this detail on board today. Well done everyone.

A special mention to both our Goalkeepers Jack Booth & Bailey Davies today as both performed to an excellent standard.

Player of the week:
Alex Mossman – An excellent performance in the heart of the midfield. Controlled the game, gave us balance in and out of possession, screened well during our defensive actions and showed discipline and energy throughout. Well done Alex

Under 16s - Connah's Quay Nomads (H)
The U16s welcomed Nomads for a late morning kick off. Airbus started quite well in the early minutes of the game, although not creating anything we were very much on the front foot.

Disappointingly an early goal from an unfortunate individual error. Airbus picked themselves up and were still getting into some very good attacking positions but nothing was able to convert.

Airbus conceded just seven minutes later after failing to defend a crossing situation.

Airbus pushed on again but were caught on the break from a well worked Nomads goal to make it 3-0 in just 14 minutes.

After 20 minutes Nomads had scored a fourth after a disaster start from Airbus.

Just before half time nomads added to the scoreline with a great pass to slide a player in behind. Going into half time it was very much a case of having to reset themselves and put on a good showing in the second half.

Early into the second half Nomads broke down the their right hand side as we fail again to defend a crossing situation.

Again throughout the second half Airbus created good situations and probably better goal scoring opportunities to get on the score sheet.

Overall, it wasn’t Airbus’ day at either end of the pitch this weekend. Back to training this week to ensure we make steps forward over the next few weeks.

Under 19s - Newtown (A)
Airbus travelled down to Newtown for their FAW Youth Cup fixture at Latham Park

Newtown started by far the better of the two teams, coming out from minute one pressing and causing Airbus problems

We could not get control of the game and Newtown had us penned in for long periods of possession

The hosts scored the opening goal on the 30’ and looked in complete control

As the first half drew to a close Airbus started to create a few chances however could not capitalise on their possession

Second half started similarly to the first half as Newtown came out and started well. Airbus managed to get control of the game however after making an error in build up Newtown were able to punish Airbus on the 55’ on the counter attack.

2 minutes later after not gathering themselves quick enough Newtown score a 3rd goal

After a change of formation to try and cause our opponents some problems and chase the game Airbus started to play some fantastic football and on 72’ assisted by Harry Henderson, James Allen managed to put the ball in the net after some excellent possession

Looking very dangerous Airbus narrowly missed moments later with Ieuan Jones Wellstead getting in behind. Again Airbus press Newtown and through Lloyd Robinson nearly manage to create another chance. Harry Jones nearly headed home from a corner moments later, all very good chances however frustratingly we could not make the most of our moments in front of the opposition goal

As the game drew to a close Airbus in total control but sadly not able to capitalise when we did create chances turned out to be to little to late for the young wing makers as they exit the cup, final score 3-1 Newtown

Player of the week goes to Cam Meredith. Cam is an excellent player and plays with such a maturity. Defensively Cam was fantastic against Newtown breaking up play and slowing the opposition in key moments of the game. Cam is a great character to have in the group and continues to go from strength to strength. Well done Cam

Airbus Reserves – Flint Mountain (A)
The Reserves travelled to Flint Mountain on Friday night looking to maintain their good run of results.

Airbus came out strong, dominating possession and scoring two excellent goals in the first 15 minutes. Unfortunately, 3 errors led to 3 quick goals from the hosts. At half time Airbus trailed 3-2.

At half time the Airbus players were asked to think about where our opportunities were coming from, not to forget the message before the game which focused on unity and belief.

Airbus dominated the second half and scored two quick goals to take the lead. A very impressive half of football was rewarded with a 5th goal in the last minute.

Player of the week goes to Jay Hughes who didn’t miss a session, scored a well-deserved goal, showed a great attitude and literally put his body on the line! Special mention to Alex Sharpe who also literally put his body on the line suffering a broken wrist but soldiering on for 30 minutes.