On Sunday 23rd February Warrington’s 16 & under team played in the Liverpool & District tournament held at Liverpool Aquatic Centre. The tournament was a fixture left over from 2013 so players born 1997 could play.
Warrington had a small team of eight players including Luke Atkinson, Ben Dailey and Dom Richard who played for the 12 & under team last year.
The first game was against Southport with each game consisting of two halves of six minutes a good start was important. Ben Dailey scored the first goal with Stanley Mainwaring adding a second. Warrington although ahead struggled to link passes together it was clear that we were short of match practice. In the second half we started to get earlier passes made and were finding the free player. The second half saw two goals from Tim Mainwaring and further goals from Ben Dailey, Stanley Mainwaring and Jacob Wass. The final score was 7-1 to Warrington.
It was a great start but we knew we could play better and needed to play better if we were going to win the tournament. Luke Atkinson had complete control of his goal area and contributed significantly to Warrington conceding very few goals.
In the next game we faced Chester.
We started well with a goal from Tim Mainwaring but Chester quickly equalised. Jacob Wass got his shooting sorted out and scored to put Warrington 2-1 ahead. Again Chester equalised but again Jacob struck back to make it 3-2. With 13 seconds left Warrington conceded a penalty and Chester converted the penalty. The 3-3 score line showed we needed to be more organised in defence and to pass the ball quicker in attack. The second half started as the first half did with a goal from Tim Mainwaring. Ben Dailey was next to score as Warrington looked much improved. a Chester player was excluded and Warrington converted the power play through Tom Costello to make it 6-3. Three goals in two minutes as Warrington showed great improvement in taking their chances.
Tim Mainwaring scored again and Jacob Wass scored two, to help Warrington win the quarter 6-0 and the game 9-3.
The final game was against Bridgefield who had quite a few Lancaster players in their team. It was a tough game with Warrington struggling to contain Bridgefield on the break. In the first half Bridgefield scored four goals despite the save of the tournament from Luke Atkinson. Bridgefield had three players excluded but Warrington could not score from the man up.
In the second half Warrington started to come into the game and had several chances to score but failed to convert the chances. We restricted Bridgefield to two goals which showed we were improving as we played. The final score was 6-0 to Bridgefield.
All the boys played really well and our younger players Dom, Ben and Luke showed they could hold their own at 16 and under. Warrington finished second overall which is a good performance. Well done boys!
It was clear they all need more games over the coming weeks in preparation for the 2014 season.
Warrington team included Luke Atkinson, Jacob Wass, Tim Mainwaring, Adam farini, Tom Costello, Stan Mainwaring, Ben Dailey, Dom Richard.
Warrington (2)7 Southport (1)1
Ben Dailey (2)
Stan Mainwaring (2)
Tim Mainwaring (2)
Jacob Wass (1)
Warrington (3)9 Chester (3)3
Jacob Wass (5)
Tim Mainwaring (2)
Tom Costello (1)
Ben Dailey (1)
Bridgefield (4) 6 Warrington (0) 0
Warrington Scorers …
Jacob Wass 6, Tim Mainwaring 4, Ben Dailey 3, Stanley Mainwaring 2, Tom Costello 1