Throughout the long and very hot summer, indeed without stopping since April, our young players have trained and practised twice a week in preparation for this new season. They have each fully embraced the concept that they have two specific jobs – one when we possess the ball, the other when we don’t. The key to doing both well is to instantly react when they lose possession and again when they get the ball back. The Jargonistas call that “the transition”, we call it losing the ball and getting the ball back. Each job requires a lot of practise and a lot of work and each requires a different team shape. Our wonderful young Bakerees have listened, practised, asked questions and practised again and we think the evidence of their tireless work was on show today.

From the first minute the boys were on top of everything. The ball flew from one to another at magnificent pace, giving the visitors little or no chance to play. And the goals followed. The first was a superb finish from our Ollie that he made look easy. What was superb was when faced with the goalkeeper, instead of trying to powerfully bury it, he simply stroked it into the corner. He has worked on that and it works. He did the same again with his second and it is a terrific addition to his already impressive skill set. Across the pitch there were excellent performances from everyone. In goal Jack was on top of his game, producing a couple of great saves to keep the visitors out. His misjudgement for their late second goal happens to the best elite ‘keepers, and fortunately Jack has the good sense to ignore it. The defense was watertight with Ralph being his magnificent self, Isaac dominating everything that came his way and the ever-improving Eli putting in a great shift. On the right, Joseph was an endless menace, and his control and passing are a managers dream. What on earth made us think he was a goalkeeper? We eventually gave our head a wobble but it took too long. Up front young Hugo worked endlessly showing superb touches and positioning. He didn’t trouble the scorekeeper today but that will change and change dramatically over coming months. William the wasp did everything we asked and his endless harrying forced the visitors into conceding an own goal.

In the middle of all this magnificence was the conductor. Orchestrating, cajoling, dictating, dominating, driving and leading from the front, our Captain Arthur put in his best-ever performance.

The Bakerees are now a good, solid team, but today they set themselves a very high bar. The challenge now is to repeat that, week in and week out. Only then can they aspire to be the best team ever to represent our club, but they are on the way.

The Bakerees today: Jack, Eli, Ralph, Isaac, Arthur, Hugo, William, Ollie and Joseph.

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