U 11's lose 3-2 to Failsworth

The Under 11's got beat 3-2 away to Failsworth after a few key decisions went against them.

Failsworth put us under pressure from the start & we had to absorb some great attacking play until we got ourselves sorted out.  We had tried to change things around but it just did not work & we had to put the lads in their stronger positions to hold back Failsworth. Gary was inspired in goal & Fletch awesome in front of him, blocking everything until we got our formation right.
Ethan looked under control on the left, covering for Fletch making the challenges, George fighting for every challenge & Sean on the right finally shored things up & we started to play.
Joe let Morgan go down the left to out skill 3 players before sliding a great ball to Kyle who tucked it away nicely to go 1-0 up against the run of play which it stayed till half time.
Then it was our turn to put on the pressure. Alex, Lewis & Jamie ripped them apart & created chance after chance, only for Failsworth to put in a final block. They started to counter attack as we got too excited leaving a whole in the middle & they equalized as our defenders got stretched.
Back up the other end we Jamie scored to put us 2-1 up & we piled on the pressure for the third to secure the game. We hit the cross bar & should have wrapped it up but they hit us on the break again. Gary dropped a ball under pressure but recovered to get his hands on the ball, only for their player to attack it & score. This was a 50/50 decision, the attacker had a right to challenge but Gary got the ball, only to be kicked in the face for them to score. In the premiership this would never have stood but the ref made the decision & had to stick with it.
Then came the controversy.
5 mins to go Failsworth got a free kick just in our half. We defended the 18 yr line & their left winger stood 3 foot off side before the kick was made. Our players knew he was there & appealed as soon as they floated in the kick. Unfortunately the ref was level with the lad taking the free kick & not in line with the defenders so could not see. Clear mistake, everyone else new but the ref gave the goal. The lads were quite rightly absolutely gutted as they new they had been robbed. Every offside decision was called for in the first half under pressure from the home team management & supporters, even when it was 6 inches offside,  but the Celtic lads did not get the right call today, it was way offside.

Unfortunately lads the ref is trying to manage the game without linesman & mistakes will happen. Hopefully we will get a key decision our way soon, as we deserve one after the disallowed goal last week against Glossop which could have won us the game.

In summary both sets of lads gave everything. They were a credit to both sets of parents and a draw should have been the right result. This was the hardest team we've played this year & the best we have battled. If we played like this every week we'd win every game.

Well done lads, great performance.