From the touchline: That Wow! moment

The last couple of months have been very stop start due to freezing conditions and flooded pitches – a very frustrating period for the teams I coach. So to have a return to more consistent match play has been a delight and a relief.

It is always nice to see my players return but despite a good warm up and active minds my players started their game sluggishly – no doubt in no small part due to the games they have missed. They found that their passing game was not troubling the opposition who were playing a tight possession game.

We had a good lesson in movement with the opposition trying to advance up the pitch – so there was a lot of covering space and pressing players on the ball.

The midfield was the first to rediscover their form, and just before half time one of them intercepted a pass and we were able to quickly counter attack.

He went on a great run, knocking the ball past the last defender and was through on goal. As he advanced on goal and the defenders swarmed back a couple of his team mates caught up with him and in my mind I was thinking “pass the ball!”

But he didn't and he cut inside and unleased a fantastic shot that hit the back of the net. It had the wow factor!

When I got home I wrote down the skills that had gone into scoring that goal:

• Interception
• Control to hold on to the ball and counter
• Dribbling
• Decision not to pass
• Look up to see where the goalkeeper was
• Move the ball into a position to shoot while running
• Shooting with power and direction.

And all that from an 11-year-old.... yet when I think about it all these things are worked on at training every week, counter attacks, 1v1 decisions, controlling the ball, dribble and shooting... my players have all these things in their locker and it is fantastic to see it coming out.

Which is the hardest of all those skills? Maybe intercepting the ball to start the move off because so many things come into play from that moment.