Here's the third and final part of Anthony 'Reds' Redwood's Academy tour blog. Reds has taken time out of his busy Spanish schedule throughout the week to keep us up to date with the on goings of the under 18s pre-season training camp in Malaga. Happily, this final instalment ends on the best possible note. Enjoy!
Monday 19th July 2010
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The first stumbling block of the tour came today as we were told that Malaga were unable to fulfil their commitment to Tuesday's fixture. Fortunately, our tour organisers managed to reschedule and we would now be playing an Alhaurin XI, a Spanish third division team.
We started the day with a morning session, concentrating on position-specific training with Mark Neville before putting it into practice with some intense small-sided games. As this would be our only football session today, the players worked themselves hard before an afternoon session in the gym.
During the evening after some more education work with Steve Ellis, Neal Ardley organised a sports quiz in which defenders took on attackers. Some very 'interesting' answers resulted in defenders winning comfortably (although the staff team also did themselves proud!).The attackers were always going to be in trouble after naming 'bow and arrow' as one of the seven heptathlon events….
Reds
Tuesday 20th July 2010
With matchday upon us, we took an hour in the morning to work through team shape and player responsibilities. For the first time this week the weather was overcast, which was maybe a refreshing change to the blazing sun! With training preparations complete, relaxation time and match groundwork followed. The players' approach was more than professional, as it had been all week.
We started the game brightly against Alhaurin and scored after two minutes, Jesse Darko finishing a cross from six yards out after good work down the left from Dane Griffiths. Despite us having the majority of possession for most of the first half, Alhaurin equalised after thirty minutes and we went into the interval at 1-1.
Our training and hard work started to tell during the second half though, and we took a three goal lead with Joe Ralls, Ibrahim Farah and Jesse Darko converting chances.Although Alhaurin managed to claw a goal back as a result of our own sloppy defending, we finished the game with a last minute Jesse Darko penalty, which gave him his hatrick and us, a convincing 5-2 victory.
The lads had put in a very pleasing performance and had put into practice what they'd learned throughout the week.
Reds
Wednesday 21st July 2010
Its 8.30 am at time of writing, and the last day of a fantastic Spanish tour. After breakfast, the players will do a warm-down in the pool with Nilton Terroso and hopefully enjoy themselves for the rest of the day. There has been much to reflect on and we've learnt a lot about our players as individuals and as a squad. There's a long season ahead and much to work on, but the positives from the last week will undoubtedly stand us in good stead for the upcoming campaign.
We return home in the early hours of tomorrow morning and will be back to business as usual from Friday in readiness for Saturday's friendly against Shrewsbury Town.Thank you all for following our progress the last week - I hope you've enjoyed it and we look forward to your support for the coming season.
Reds
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