Uplifted!

Not for the first time have I returned home thoroughly uplifted by what I have seen at Market Road N1 tonight....................surely one of the most remarkable football experiences to be had anywhere.

Commencing at 5pm with the under 9s, there are four side by side floodlit mini football pitches (75 metres x 55 metres) and a five hour festival of non stop football in the Islington & Camden Midweek Youth Football League hundreds of young players in some of the most imaginative club strips ever seen and literally hundreds and hundreds of spectators ranging from brothers and sisters, parents, friends, neighbours and a bevvy of scouts and coaches from many professional clubs.

Several of Anthony's Arsenal Development lads play in this league and group of four of them are now at his new club and they were under the scrutiny of one of their coaches tonight as their team lost their first ever competitive game in the two years since it's formation and it was fascinating to watch how they even failed to cope with going behind to a freak own goal seconds before half time and how it affected their composure and discipline of positional sense in the second half to eventually lose two nil.

Some of them were tearful at the end of a game which will teach them far more than one they would have won easily and as usual my little lad was no different in his manner ............win, lose or draw Anthony is Mr Inscrutable, a "Joe Cool" character who will do his talking tomorrow.

He played the lone man up front for the first twenty minutes of a 2 x 25 minute half game tonight, double marked with a "sweeper" behind them so all he could realistically do was hold the ball up and lay it off into space or ping it off quickly, make his turn and run into space ~I don't recall him working his way into one scoring position and the guy who came onto replace him (and the third one for the last ten minutes) had the same brick wall to keep him out.

Anthony and I stayed to watch an under 11 game afterwards in which the greater tactical appreciation and discipline of shape was apparent from lads those vital two years further into their football education.

With the dramatic scene of all those spectators, the floodlights shining down and smell and queues of the burger van, this was proper football at it's very best. A chill night under a clear sky and a Bovril and bread roll to warm the interior..................you can't beat it!

I'm glad he was used sparingly this evening as he has a London FA Cup match to play in on Sunday and a training session tomorrow lunchtime, following training last night and Tuesday night!