U8

The first game back after the Christmas Break was an invite to Leeds United where we were welcomed by the opposition to play at their magnificent training facilities. The boys hadn’t played a match for over 3 weeks but looked like they’d never been away. Some very attractive football being played by a team that look like they’ve been together for a lot longer than 6 months. Individual skill and collective team objectives allowed them to thrive against very good opponents scoring 8 goals and showing excellent defensive principles throughout. The only difficult bit for the coaches was trying to pick a player of the match for the two teams.

Players of the week:

Airbus:

Jack Thomas - 'A rock' no other way to describe it, allowed the boys further up to play with freedom, a gritty performance winning every 1v1 battle he had at the back and then following that stepping out and finding a team mate to set up counter attack’s.

The Wingmakers:

Klay Galbraith - Solid & brave performance, strong with his tackles, very good positioning at the back forcing opposition away from goal and read the game really well.

Albie Dodd - Again a solid performance winning his 1v1 battles. Made a lot of right decisions with the ball linking up well with other attacking players. Scored a great goal with a thunderbolt left foot strike.

A wonderful morning that was only enhanced when we were approached by Leeds United coaching staff to commend both players and parents for their behaviour and performance and with an invite to go back for a football festival in the summer.

U9

Our young U9s travelled away and played a very talented Wigan Athletic. The games started at a very fast pace, with lots of examples of skill acquisition, numerous turns which resulted in a number of excellent goals - which has been the topic in training over the last week.

Players of the week:

Harry Richards - Outstanding dribbling and creativity play.

Freddie Argyle - With his determination to drive at the opposition and his free kicks on show.

U13

It has been an excellent return to Airbus since the lads returned on 5th January 2023. What is clear to see is that the lads have come back focused and have trained well. They have had 2 extremes of football with the futsal tournament last week in which they finished 2nd out of 8 & on Sunday where we played 11 a side on a decent sized pitch v an excellent TNS side.

Out of possession we were excellent &.TNS rarely broke through us. Defensively we played with a 4 and after a hectic first 10 minutes, we pretty much dealt with the TNS pressure.

However we will need to get used to the greater distances (to be expected after futsal) as we weren't able to transition quickly enough in the opponents half and cause them any real problems in possession. This is an area that we will work on in the next 5 months and is the reason why we are starting this 11 a side format again in preparation for next season. We also need to be better in key areas as it was clear to see that we were lacking in strength when we were in good positions in the finishing phase.

Overall a successful exercise for the lads and there are plenty of positives to build on going forward.

Player of the week:

Evan Roberts - Excellent performance in defensive areas throughout the fixture

U13 Girls

After a good performance last weekend vs Broughton Utd U10/11 boys, the girls were caught out in the first 20 mins by the physical approach of their opponents on the day Brickfield. They recovered from conceding an early goal to go in 1-1 at half time. The second half saw a much improved dominant performance with the team returning to its principles of play and the match ended 3-1 in our favour. A special mention to Amelia Jones, Ruby Ashford and Jess Noden who were influential in breaking lines and switching & linking play to create many chances.

Player of the week:

Gracie Hole - At half time Gracie was asked to return to basics by playing on her back foot and break lines with her passing and driving runs. She did all of that & was dominant in 1v1s creating chance after chance with some great crosses.

U15

It was the Under 15s first game after the 5 week break for Christmas, and the lads picked up where they left off dominating the early stages on a very wet and windy Sunday morning. Airbus finally broke the deadlock after creating a number of chances, with Kenzie Pickles chipping the opposing Goalkeeper. Colwyn bay grew into the game and get a equaliser before half time, hitting Airbus on the counter attack. After the break, Airbus stepped it up a gear and reduced Colwyn Bay to a couple of half chances. Harry Jones pounced on a loose back pass and calmly slotted past the keeper to make it 2-1, and Harry Williams added a third to confirm the victory. Overall a very successful exercise for the 15s, rehearsing 3 different formations in difficult conditions. Plenty of positives to take forward into the coming weeks.

Player of the week:

Tom Henderson - Great to have him back near his best after an injury hit first half to the season. Good in possession and defended well in 1v1s, while showing great attitude and commitment throughout the match.

U16

U16s v Colwyn Bay - It was clear at the start of the game that we'd have had a few weeks off. We started off by forcing the ball forward a little too much which played into the hands of Colwyn Bay. Colwyn Bay took the lead through a fantastic strike from a decent distance. Callum Hughes equalised after some good play, after creating a couple of chances before this. Charlie scored a great header from a corner just before half time to go in at half time in the lead. Colwyn Bay equalised quite quickly after us under hitting a bass pack which lead to our goalkeeper giving a penalty away. We continued creating chances just not clinical enough, Callum Hughes gave us the lead again through a penalty half way through the second half. Colwyn Bay then scored from pinching the ball from us playing out from the back and a corner. Airbus equalised late on through Theo.

Player of the week:

Callum Hughes - A player that was at the heart of the good chances we created and was unfortunate not to get a hat trick. He also demonstrated the levels needed out of possession.

U19

Sunday 15th January saw Airbus 19’s play host to Newtown 19’s at the Hollingsworth Stadium in the Cymru Premier Development League, in the first game of 2023. After the last encounter we were under no illusions of the quality Newtown threatened and the mountain we had to climb

After a relatively strong start from the visitors, causing us some new problems they took an early lead on 16’ from a free kick from 20-25 yards. With the momentum with the visitors early on, Airbus started to find solutions to the problems they caused, fighting back and finishing the half with the momentum swinging in our favour, ending the half behind with a big no penalty decision going against Airbus.

Starting the second half it felt like Airbus had total control having found solutions they needed. We created chance after chance, hitting the bar twice and the post once and forcing the opposing keeper to make an excellent save. Sadly against the run of play we conceded the second and last goal of the game on 85’. Even though we spent 75 percent of the second half in the opposition half we just couldn’t break the 10 men behind the ball down losing 0-2 on the day to a good Newtown team.

Player of the week:

Louix Sparks - Had a big game dealing well with senior players from the opposition. Louix has been in good form recently in training and around the dressing room and his contribution has not gone unnoticed.