23/24 Season Review

This was our first season playing competitively with a full league table and the players were very excited to see how they would do.

 

We were very happy to welcome new Thunderhawks to the team: Jack Rivera, Ruben Rivera, Seb McHardy, Ziad Abdelnaby and Artin Izady all joined our squad!

 

September

 

We started our season with a couple of friendlies the first of which was against the Onslow Knights. We were not sure how our new look team would get on, and it was a tough opening, after 10 minutes we were 0-2 behind and barely able to get out of our own penalty area! But Kam scored against the run of play and suddenly momentum shifted in our favour, quick fire goals from Ruben, Jack and Seb meant we went into half time 4-3 in front!

 

Ruben would go on to score 4 goals as the team would win 8-5!

 

We then played a friendly against local club, Meadow Sports in searing heat. A really competitive match although we eventually won 7-1 with a great team performance with two goals from Ben and then one goal each from Harry H, Henry, Jack, Ruben and Kam.

 

Then the league started and we opened our first fully competitive match against Milford Pumas Racers. It was a really tough game, and after scoring 15 goals in our two friendlies, we found it very hard to score indeed, with 10 minutes to go we were 1-3 behind and things looked hopeless! But then Harry C scored with a very long range free kick and Ruben found an immediate equaliser. There was still 5 minutes left, and the team were not finished. Ziad went on a mazy run and scored brilliantly from the edge of the box, before Henry volleyed home a cross from Ethan to complete and amazing turnaround and a 5-3 victory!

 

Next we travelled to play Dorkinians who we knew to be very strong opponents and, for the third time in our opening 4 games, we conceded first and found ourselves chasing the game. However, Seb, who was playing as striker, scored a brilliant goal with his left foot into the roof of the net after a through pass from Jack, before then heading home brilliantly from Henry’s cross to put us 2-1 up at halftime. Ethan then extended the lead in the second half after scoring on the rebound from a shot by Kam.

 

The Dorkinians pulled a goal back with a brilliant long range shot, before Seb completed his perfect hat-trick (left foot, right foot and header), smashing a loose ball home from close range to confirm a 4-2 victory!

 

September continued with a home league game against Onslow, notable for some specatular goals scored by the Thunderhawks, Ben scored from a long dribble through the defence, Ziad scored into the roof of the net from an impossible angle, and finally JJ sealed the win with a goal from the halfway line. The final score 7-2 to the Thunderhawks.

 

We finished the month with an away trip to Cranleigh, and although we fell behind again, conceding an early goal, we took control of the game and won 9-1 with braces for Henry, Seb and Ziad and first goal of the season from Harry H.

 

So September saw 6 games and 6 wins with 40 goals scored and only 14 conceded!

 

October

 

We started October with a league cup match against Brockham Badgers, we again fell behind, conceding the first goal (for the 5^th time in 7 matches), but ultimately took control, with defensive players contributing well to the attack with Max getting a pair of assists along with Lewis. Ziad scored 4 goals with 2 assists in this one, as the team won the game 11-3 to progress to the next round.

 

We then won a friendly against our sister team the Thundercats, this featured hat-tricks from Ben and Kam and a goal from Josh, who was trying out his new position as striker!

 

We finished October with a very special friendly against Le Plessis Robinson, a touring team from Paris (who turned out to be an u13s team). This was a really tough game and the team had to learn to play defensively and attack quickly using counter attacks as the tourists dominated possession. Our tactics worked well though with Ethan scoring his first ‘international goal’ to give us an early lead.  Eventually we suffered a first defeat of the season, losing the game 4-6.

 

Our first international match, Thunderhawks squad to face Du Plessis Robinson!

 

 

November

We started November with a 10-0 win away at Ewhurst before playing Woking Cougars in the County Cup. We were a little nervous as the Cougars had beaten a fellow SSYL team 13-1 in the previous round. It was a good game, and the Cougars dominated much of the match with good goalkeeping from JJ keeping us in the game. But we created chances too and Ben scored a great goal to make it 1-2 with minutes to play. Ben hit the post in the final minutes as we pushed for an equaliser, but we could not find a way through and the Cougars deservedly progressed (eventually reaching the quarter finals).

 

We then focused on the league, winning 6-1 at home against Chiddingfold in which centre back Max scored his first goal of the season with a spectacular volley from the edge of the penalty area!

 

Another league cup match followed and another 6-1 win against Division 2 leaders Loxwood at home. Loxwood put up stiff resistance but a brace from Josh and another from Kam helped the team through to the semi-finals of the competition.

 

We ended the month with an away trip to Milford, who we had beaten with a brilliant comeback in our opening league game of the season. Although Josh scored to give us the lead in this one, we, again, found it hard to break Milford down and once again trailed 1-3 with 10 minutes to go. Surely we could not pull off another comeback???

 

A goal from Seb pulled us back into contention and then we got a penalty and a chance to equalise…but it was brilliantly saved by the Milford goalkeeper. We kept pushing for an equaliser, creating a series of goalmouth scrambles, before Ziad finally pulled us level from close range with barely a minute to go.

 

And still the game was not over, in the final seconds Ziad won a free kick on the edge of the box and our deadball specialist, Ethan, stepped up to take it. The resulting free kick flew past the defensive wall and sailed into the very top left corner of the goal, another comeback win successfully completed, 4-3 being the final result!

 

December

By the time December came around, the team knew their results meant they were in contention to win the league. But December would see us play the 3 teams directly behind us in the table...

 

First up we welcomed Dorkinians to St Peters Rec, this was a really competitive match and was notable for a tremendous performance by our defenders, Max & Harry stopped everything through the middle, Harry C in goal stopped (almost) everything thrown at him and Josh, Ethan and Lewis kept the wingers at bay. We did fall behind in this game, but Kam equalised with a penalty after Ziad was tripped, and then Jack and Ruben each scored to complete a terrific 3-1 victory.

 

Next we travelled to play Onslow, having never previously won away against them. We did this time though, a brilliant goalkeeping display from JJ kept snuffing out the much-feared Onslow counter-attack and our own attack functioned well, with goals from Seb, Ziad, Kam, Ruben and the now customary free kick from Ethan completing a 6-1 win.

 

Finally in December, we played our third fixture against Milford. This was another tough game and we again fell behind before a hat trick from Kam put us 3-2 in front with 15 minutes left. A pair of late goals put Milford back in the lead and some great saves from the Milford keeper meant we were unable to complete the comeback for a third time, we lost this one 3-4, our first (and only) league defeat of the season.

 

January

 

We only played the one game in January as the weather started to impact our schedule. The game was home against Cranleigh, and only went ahead after the GPR coaches got up early to drain the pitch of water at 6am in the dark! It was worth it though as the won 7-1 with a hat trick from Ben and further goals from Ethan, Ruben and Jack. Lewis put in a player of the match performance making big tackles all over the pitch to keep the Thunderhawks on top in the game!

 

February

 

We managed to play 3 games in February, the first being a tough game against Onslow. Onslow took the lead with an amazing long range shot and it suddenly felt like it would be very difficult for us to score. Eventually, we equalised just before half-time with one of Ethan’s ‘top-bins’ free kicks. The second half was tough too, but goals from Ben and Ruben, backed by a strong defensive display again from Harry, Harry, JJ and Max saw us win the game 3-1.

 

We then travelled to play Dorkinians again and managed our first clean sheet of the season, with excellent goalkeeping from both Harry and JJ and with JJ adding an amazing goalline clearance to keep us in front. In attack, Jack gave us the lead, which was extended by Josh and Ben, before Ethan finished the win with another free kick, the final score was 4-0 to the Thunderhawks and suddenly the finish line and the league title was in sight!

 

We finished the month with a tough game at Chiddingfold, Seb opened the scoring with a neat finish after a through ball by Josh, then JJ made a great save before Chiddingfold equalised from a free-kick. Jack scored to put us in front and Ziad added two penalties, either side of a Chiddingfold goal to complete a 4-2 win.

 

March

 

We started March knowing 1 more win would be enough to seal the league title! We welcomed Ewhurst to Goldsworth Park and they put up very stiff resistance. Seb scored twice and Ziad added a third, but we were doing a lot of defensive work and struggling to create chances. It was 3-2 with only a few minutes left when Ben finally put the game beyond doubt to confirm a 4-2 win and the league title for GPR!

 

 

Next business was the league cup, and we started with a semi-final against Dorkinians. The team had a fun day out because chaos on the M25 meant we had to travel to the game by train!

 

Travelling away in style!

 

 

The day out was extra fun two because JJ kept another clean sheet and the team scored five, Ethan with the first direct from a corner, plus a great karate kick finish from Ziad, along with long range screamers from Ruben and Henry, plus a penalty by Ruben also.

 

This put us into the league cup final which was against Onslow. Unfortunately we were missing a lot of our defensive players for the final, and our team had a slightly make-shift look with lots of players in positions they were not used to. Onslow played a very good final, defending in numbers and attacking with pace when they won the ball. JJ put in a heroic performance at centre back making a string of last ditch tackles, but we still found ourselves 0-2 behind at half-time.

 

We battled hard to get back in the game in the second half and created a good number of chances, Lewis and Ziad had good shots before Josh finally equalised, volleying in a cross from Ziad. We had an equaliser disallowed (correctly) for offside, our third disallowed goal of the game, before Onslow scored from a set piece to seal the win for them. We lost 1-3 in the end to a very deserving Onslow team!

 

April

With the league already won we went about finishing the last few matches, first we went to Cranleigh and won 6-2 in a game where new signing Artin scored his first goal for the club with an excellent run and shot. A brace from Ben, and goals from Henry, Jack and Ziad, plus a string of saves from JJ were the highlights. Ziad picked up a hat trick of assist including one where he dribbled the length of the pitch as we cleared a corner.

 

Our final game of the season was home against Chiddingfold and we won this one 7-1 with Harry C scoring a free kick from goalkeeper as a clear highlight. Goals also from Ziad (x2), Sev, Ruben, Henry and Artin completed the great result.

 

Our final game was due to be against Ewhurst but was ultimately cancelled as they could not field a team.

 

It was a great season for the Thunderhawks, we were SSYL Champions in our first competitive season and we were runners up in the cup too. We played 26 games and won 23 of them, scoring 147 goals in the process (conceded 49)!

 

Well done Thunderhawks!!!

 

 

This season, we have been talking to each other about the FA’s Respect campaign. As a team we have discussed what Respect means to us and have agreed the following about how to be respectful at football!

 

About Respect

 

·         We think respect is about kindness. We want to play in a team where players are kind:

o   to each other

o   to the other team

o   and to the referee

·         When we talked about kindness to each other we said:

o   We should not argue or get angry if someone makes a mistake or doesn’t pass to us

o   If someone makes a mistake, we should tell them nicely how they could do something different in future

o   If someone gets hurt, we should make sure they are OK

o   If we hurt someone playing football, we should say sorry.

·         When we talked about kindness to the other team we said:

o   we should check players on the other team are OK if they get hurt

o   at the end of the game, we should say ‘well played’, and shake hands.

o   If we don’t like how someone on the other team is behaving, we should tell a coach, or the referee, and not get angry with the player

·         When we talked about kindness to the referee we said:

o   We should not argue with the referee’s decision, even if we disagree with it

o   At the end of the game we should say ‘thank you’ to the referee.

 

About Coaches and how we play

 

·         We don’t want coaches to get cross with us for making a mistake. We think it is a good thing if we try something new in a match, even if it doesn’t work as well as we wanted. Learning to be better players is more important than winning.

·         In training, we will do our best to listen to what the coaches say

·         We look to our coaches to help us in matches by telling us,

o   what position we are playing in

o   what we can do to be a better team

·         We trust that coaches will ensure everyone gets a fair turn playing in different positions and gets a fair share of playing time in matches.

 

 

About parents

 

·         We like it when parents shout things like ‘Come on’ or ‘Well played’.

·         If too many people are shouting instructions it makes playing more difficult, especially if the instructions are different from what the coaches are telling us!

·         Our parents are kind for spending time and money letting us do football! We should be kind back by:

o   helping to get our kit ready for training and matches

o   helping to avoid and clear up mess (especially mud) after football!

The 2022/23 season saw us move to 9-a-side football and that meant a lot of change. Firstly we grew our squad and were delighted to welcome Harry Cruz, Danish Muhammad, Riley Davis, Adam Mitchley and Henry Tebbet to the Thunderhawks. We were also very happy to welcome back one of our founder members, Miloh Kapotwe, to the team!

 

September

 

Our season began with a terrific 6-1 home win against Onslow, a team we had never beaten before! We were very fast and direct in our counter attacks and managed to win with goals from Ben, Max and a brace each for Miloh and Kam!

 

We then welcomed Ewhurst to the Goldsworth Park rec, and picked up a 4-0 win in a very different sort of game to the previous match against Onslow. This game saw us control possession and territory, and yet find it hard to find a way past a strong defence. Eventually a long range screamer from Miloh gave us the lead at half-time, before debut goals for Harry Cruz (straight from a corner), Adam Mitchley and Riley Davis saw us win 4-0.

 

This would be the last time that Miloh played for us this season because, after extensive trials, he was selected to join the Category 1 Academy programme at Fulham Football Club!!! While we were sad to not be playing with Miloh anymore, we were so proud that his excellent skill and hard work had been rewarded in this way – Well done Miloh!!!

 

We also lost another player at this time, and this time not for a good reason, Josh Jefferies broke his arm at school and would not be able to play for us for some months!

 

October

 

Without Josh and Miloh, we went to play our first away match against Chesworth, and played a highly competitive end to end game, which we won 10-3 although it was a much tighter and more even contest than that scoreline suggests. Ben scored 6 goals in this game and Lewis had a stand out performance with an excellent assist. Danish also made his debut for the team in this game and played extremely well.

 

Then another injury blow! We lost Harry Hornzee for an extended period with another nasty arm break (again at school!)

 

Next up was a game against Albury, a tough opponent who had historically usually beaten us. We found ourselves under terrific pressure in the first half, goalkeeper Harry made a string of saves and we defended desperately on the edge of our own box. After holding on for a quarter of an hour, Ben suddenly made a break down the wing and drove into the box, flicking the ball over the goalie and into the net from an impossible angle! Minutes later, a perfect through pass from Kam put Ben in on goal again, and again he scored. Confidence growing, we continually were able to cause problems on the counter attack, Ben would complete a hattrick and there would be goals for Adam and Kam as well as we eventually won 5-1!

 

The other notable feature of this match was that, with two of our centre-backs injured, Max was thrown into the position, having not played there before. You would not have guessed it was his first time as Max proved a perfect fit to the position, forming an almost unbreakable partnership with JJ!

 

Next up was a rematch against Onslow, and it was a much harder game that the previous encounter. Indeed, we struggled to get out of our own half and found ourselves 0-3 behind with about 20 minutes to go! But then Henry Holland scored his first goal of the season, before Adam added a second from a volley on a corner. Suddenly we were back in the game and the momentum was with us. With 5 minutes to go Ben equalised, and it felt like we would go on to win, but time eventually ran out on a thrilling 3-3 draw!

 

November

 

We then played Onslow for a third time, this time away from home in the driving rain! It was another thrilling match in which we fell behind, only to come back and take the lead following a goal from Kam and a first goal for Henry Tebbet. This time it was Onslow’s turn to come back though, and we conceded two further goals to take our first loss of the season 2-3! A brilliant match though!

 

Some work in the analytics department(!) was starting to pick up tactical issues, we were conceding a lot of goals from corners (indeed 8 of 11 goals conceded to this point were from corners), and were looking weak in transition when we lost possession. The first of these issues was addressed with some solid set piece training, which would see a dramatic improvement in our defending of corners!

 

Our next game was against Dorking at home, and we were pleased to welcome Josh back from his arm injury a strange game in which two teams neutralised each other resulting in neither side mounting more than a handful of goal attempts. We scored first after a mazy dribble and shot from Henry Tebbet, but conceded a goal from a free kick which took multiple deflections on its way into the net. A 1-1 draw still a decent result against a very good team.

 

After the tactical issues with transitions identified in our video analysis, and with a better understanding of our personnel and their strengths, we changed formation, moving from the standard 3-2-3 formation to a 2-4-2 with wing-backs. We got to try this new shape out against Chiddingfold who brought a 100% winning record to Goldsworth Park.

 

They wouldn’t leave with that record intact however, despite them controlling the game early on and, much like Onslow a month earlier, moving into a 0-3 lead. We knew from our games with Onslow that we could come back and we did, first Adam scored after chasing down a through ball from JJ and slotting past the keeper, Ben then reduced the deficit to 1 with an excellent free kick before Kam won, and converted, a penalty to pull us level. Unlike the Onslow game, we were not done yet. Josh picked out an excellent pass over the Chiddingfold defence which Adam was able to finish, to win the game 4-3!

 

This thriller was followed by a very different, but still enjoyable, game with Milford, a battling game which finished 0-0, our first ever goalless draw in a league match (and credit goalkeepers Harry and JJ with the clean sheet)!

 

December

 

We just had the one game in December, a rematch with Albury, and we played very well in this one, Josh opened the scoring with a cameo as striker and also added 3 assists in the game in a man of the match performance as we won 5-2!

 

January

 

The new year got off to a difficult start, we visited Dorking (playing on the Dorking Wanderers pitch ahead of their National League game with Premier League founder members Oldham Athletic). This was an interesting game as it was our slightly dull 1-1 draw with Dorking earlier in the season which motivated us to change formation and make the games more open and attacking. It sort of worked, but not in the way we would have liked…we got hammered 1-5 after conceding a series of amazing shots into the ‘top bins’. Kam picking up a consolation goal for us.

 

We rallied though and won our next game 7-3 against Milford (who we had previously drawn 0-0 with) showing that our new tactical style could be effective after all! Harry Hornzee celebrated his return from injury with a goal in this one and we also scored via Adam and Ben (2 each) plus Kam and Josh!

 

February

 

We then travelled to Farncombe, where we had never previously won a match. That was to change though this time. We dominated territory and possession but could not put the ball into the net. Then with 10 minutes to go, Farncombe had a big chance and nearly scored. This prompted the game to open up and suddenly it became an end-to-end contest, which suited us very well, and we scored late goals through Kam and Adam to snatch a 2-0 victory!

 

We then hosted Chesworth in a game where (due to a competing rugby tournament) we were missing a lot of our players! Kam scored a brilliant first half hattrick however, including two volleys straight from corners (assists for Ethan and Danish). Further goals from Adam and Henry Tebbet left us as 5-2 winners.

 

March

March brought a tough run of fixtures as we were drawn against the four toughest opponents we had faced so far in a row, starting with Dorking who were unbeaten and had recently beaten us 1-5!

 

This proved to be one of our very best performances, we went a goal behind and feared the worst, but some excellent and very direct counter-attacking allowed us to create good chances. A perfect corner from Ethan was finished by Henry Holland to pull us level, before two terrific driving runs were finished by Adam to put us 3-1 ahead at half-time! The Max & JJ centre-back partnership in front of Harry C in goal proved unbreakable in the second half and we added a fourth goal on the counter attack via Ben, eventually avenging our previous defeat with a 4-1 win.

 

Next, we travelled to Albury and they put up much stronger resistance than our previous games. We were under a lot of pressure (as we often are against Albury) but this time could not find opportunities to counter-attack. We lost Danish to a wrist injury and then fell behind 1-0.  In the second half we rallied though, and equalised after a brilliant run Ben before a screamer from Ethan (top bins, outside the box) put us in front. Henry Holland then extended the lead to 3-1 with a brilliant shot from the edge of the box!

 

We could not hold this lead though, we were under huge pressure and JJ , in goal, made a series of unbelievable saves before they scored with 10 minutes to go. They soon equalised after a defensive mix-up saw our offside trap fail, leaving Albury with a simple chance. Still a 3-3 draw was a credible result against a very good team, although we were a little disappointed not to have held on.

 

Next up, and missing lots of our squad, we travelled to Chiddingfold. We didn’t know what to expect having come back from 0-3 last time to win 4-3. We got off to a better start this time around though, Riley scoring with a nice low shot after getting to a rebound first to give us a lead. Then, on the stroke of half-time Ethan decided to shoot from near the half-way line and his beautifully hit shot flew straight into the top corner of the goal to give us a 2-0 advantage.

 

Chiddingfold pulled a goal back from a corner (hadn’t conceded one of those for a while) before Harry Hornzee, playing striker in the absence of Adam and Kam, restored our lead. Henry Tebbet’s neat finish from one of our corners then made it 4-1, before Chiddingfold started to comeback! They scored 2 quick goals to leave the score 4-3 with 10 minutes to go. With momentum against us, we switched formation, adding a third centre-back to withstand the wave after wave of attacks we faced. It worked and we held on to win the game!

 

We ended March undefeated after we managed a 2-2 draw with Onslow, in which having led 2-1 through a brace from Ben, we were pegged back and were left holding on for a draw at the end!

 

2 wins and 2 draws from the 4 fixtures against Dorking, Onslow, Albury and Chiddingfold showed us that on our day we could compete with, and even defeat, any team in the league and we were very pleased with that effort.

 

April

 

We had two matched in April, a 7-1 win against Chesworth in which both Ben and Kam got hattricks, before we ended the season in defeat, losing 2-1 at home to a much-strengthened Milford side.

 

We finished the league campaign then with a record of:

 

Played 20

Won: 12

Drew: 5

Lost: 3

We scored 76 goals and conceded 39

 

It was an excellent league campaign, we might not have been quite the leagues strongest team, but we showed that on our day we could beat anyone. It was particularly pleasing that so many of the games were highly competitive, 9 of our games were settled by 1 goal or less, and we only lost by more than a single goal on one occasion. Most importantly, the team played well together and had a lot of fun playing football!

 

We closed of April by entering a tournament at Farncombe (6 a side) which we won! In the group stages we started slowly, drawing 1-1 in our opening match, then beating Dorking 2-0 with goals from Kam and Riley before a 0-0 draw meant we had to win our final game. Under pressure we won the critical game 4-2.

 

In the semi final we almost fell a goal behind immediately from kick-off with Harry making a wonder save in the opening seconds! The game finished scoreless and with penalties beckoning, Ben scored from a free kick to win the match. In the final we met Ewhurst (who had knocked us out the previous year and had just knocked our training partners from the Thundercats), the final was an excellent and close game, but in the end, a late goal from Kam proved decisive, and we lifted the trophy!

 

 

 

May

In May, we entered the Three Bridges 6 a-side Tournament for the first time. We had a lot of fun there and won 4 out of 7 games, finishing 3rd in our group which sadly was not quite enough to reach the knock out stages of the tournament. Highlights included a first Thunderhawks goal for Danish, as well as great goals scored by Harry, Ben, Ethan and Josh. Great goalkeeping from JJ too!

 

June

 

In June we had two tournaments, the first was our home GPR Tournament a 9-a-side event and we were in the Senior Competition. The standard of teams was very strong and we were competitive, but struggled to score goals (unusually for us). We still qualified for the plate competition where we found ourselves in a penalty shoot out (our 6th ever, having lost all previous 5) and... we won at last, all of our penalty takers scored! Sadly we didn’t end up winning the plate but a penalty shoot out win was certainly a highlight (after all the pain they have caused previously)!

 

Our final event of the season was the Staines & Laleham Tournament (6 a side). Again the standard was super high, and I set the team the goal of being competitive in the group stages... but the team had much more optimistic aspirations, they rattled off wins against high calibre opposition, Shepherds Bush, Met Police & Ascot United while the other teams struggled to find consistency. We found ourselves pulling away at the top of the table, and ended up winning the group by a distance! Certainly a highlight of the season against such strong opposition. We didn’t win the tournament, but winning that group was an achievement to be proud of, and an excellent end to the season!

 

Overview

 

This was one of our best ever seasons, we established ourselves as one of the strongest teams in our league, we won our first tournament and we had a lot of fun along the way.

 

The overall record for the season in all competitions was

Played: 45

Won: 24

Drew: 12

Lost: 9

Scored: 102

Conceded: 54

 

Awards

Most Improved Player: Max Lockyer

Coaches Player of the Season: Henry Holland

Player's Player of the Season: Ben Slater 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After two seasons which were heavily impacted by the pandemic, it was wonderful to be able to play a full season again at last!

 

Across tournaments and the league, the Thunderhawks played 48 games in total during the 21/22 season, more than the previous two years combined!

 

In the 20/21 season, the Thunderhawks managed to reach the top division of the South Surrey Youth League (SSYL), but found things hard at that level, just avoiding relegation out of the division with a narrow win on the last game of the season.

 

This year, I set the team the goal of establishing themselves and being competitive in that division through the season…

 

A mixed start to the season...

 

However, we didn’t get off to the best start, losing 0-4 at home in our first game against Onslow, indeed home form was an issue at the start of the season as we lost our first four on our home pitches (in addition to Onslow we lost 2-4 vs Albury Eagles despite a spectacular goal from Jeremi, 1-4 vs Farncombe, 3-4 vs Chiddingfold).

 

The game against Chiddingfold was notable for a late comeback which saw the team come from 1-3 down late in the game to draw level, only to concede a last minute winner!

 

Despite this home form, things were looking rather better for the team on their travels. Wins of 10-0 (with a 4 goal haul for Kam) against Chiddingfold and 10-1 against Fernhurst (in which Lewis scored his first of the season and Jeremi scored in a second consecutive game) were followed up by a 6-3 win against Albury Lions (which was 3-3 late in 4^th quarter until late goals from Kam, Ben & Lewis won it) and a battling 2-2 draw at Dorkinians (who had beaten us 1-5 at the end of the previous season).

 

The Dorkinians draw notable for Harry scoring the teams second ever headed goal, after a cross by Ethan (the first headed goal also being by Harry at Dorkinians in the previous season, again after a cross by Ethan). 

 

New tactics, new positions....and success!

 

A key turning point occurred at the beginning of December, the team travelled to visit the Albury Eagles, who had comfortably beaten the Thunderhawks in all previous meetings. A tactical change remodelled Ben as a striker, with the team playing a more direct style than had been the case before. Ben’s strength and hold-up play suited this approach perfectly, and our opponents were caught by surprise too as Ben scored a hat-trick and Kam scored a brace in a 5-3 victory!

 

This tactical change saw us go on a 3 month unbeaten run, which continued with our first home win of the season, 1-0 against Dorkinians, who, like Albury the week before, we had never previously beaten. This game stands out for some heroic defending by Harry (who put is body on the line to block multiple shots), Josh (who swept countless crosses away from our goal), Jackson (who made the tackle of the season to deny a clear chance for our opponent) and some unbelievable goalkeeping by Max who made several incredible saves (including clawing a shot over the crossbar while at full stretch) as we held out for the win while under huge pressure!

 

A visit to Onslow (who had beaten us 0-4 in our opening game) followed and we came away with an excellent 2-2 draw after Ethan took a late free kick and put it ‘top bins’ to equalise! We followed this with a 6-0 win at Albury Lions in which Harry scored a hat-trick to move into second place in the all-time Thunderhawks scoring ranks and in which Jackson scored his first goal of the season!

 

We then travelled to the home of the Surrey FA at Meadowbank stadium to face Dorkinians again, and came from a goal behind to win 4-2. This game featured a ‘player of the match’ performance from Henry who, by this point, was rapidly perfecting the art of being a ball-playing defensive midfielder, breaking up opponent attacks and launching first paced counters!

 

At this point our unbeaten run came to an end, with a narrow 2-3 defeat at Chidingfold, but we were back to winning ways the following week with a 7-1 win at Milford, in a game where Ben scored 5 goals!

 

A couple of defeats followed as the season came to a close at Onslow and Farncombe, and we rounded off the campaign with a friendly against another GPR team, winning 6-2, in a game where our new signing Riley made his debut and scored 2 goals including a header (goals also from Max, Kam & Ethan)!

 

All together our league campaign finished with the team having played 19, won 9, drawn 2, lost 8 with 72 goals scored and 50 conceded!

 

A fantastic season in which the team clearly established themselves as competitive against any opponent in the SSYL and therefore succeeded in the challenge I set them at the start of the year!  

 

On to the Tournaments

 

That was not the end though, as the league season ended, tournament season began! The Thunderhawks entered 5 tournaments this year and had a great time at all of them…

 

At Farncombe the team won their opening two games with a pair of goals from Henry including a long range screamer into the roof of the net, but then lost the final two games to be eliminated from the Tournament on goal difference!

 

Then we played at the Hampton & Richmond Tournament…we lost our first two matches, but won a tense game with Teddington after Jeremi scored a winning goal from a corner! We then won 2-0 against Woking Cougars Blues and drew with Feltham to take 3^rd place in the group and reach the knock-out rounds. A comfortable 2-0 win followed in the quarter-final but we were then eliminated by the eventual winner (the Aldershot academy team) in the semi-final!

 

Next up we went to play on the billiard table smooth pitches of Manorcroft…and we were delighted to be joined by a familiar face as Miloh re-joined GPR to participate in the summer tournaments! We won 3 out of 4 group games to finish second in our group to reach the knock-out rounds. A 3-0 win in the quarter-final against the tournament hosts saw us reach the semi-final, only to fall 1-0 to a strong Byfleet team! In what would become a theme for the rest of the season, we then lost in a penalty shoot-out in the 3^rd place match! An excellent performance in which overall as we only conceded 2 goals in the tournament, with Josh standing out for excellent tackling at the back. This result was good enough to earn us some silverware though as the boys all took home medals for 4^th place!

 

Then it was the big one, the GPR Summer Tournament and our first try of 9-a-side football and the offside rule! We were placed in a group of very strong teams, but played well, winning against the Cougars blues, and drawing 3 out of 4 other matches. We were minutes away from finishing second and reaching the cup final of the competition, but a late equaliser by Woking Town sent us into the plate competition, where we lost, once again, on penalties!

 

Our final football of the season came at the Camberley Tournament, the team played really well here: we cruised through the group stages, winning all 4 games comfortably (3-1, 3-0, 3-0 & 1-0). We were in control of our quarter final match too, but a late equaliser from our opponent sent into the now dreaded penalty shoot-out with the now customary outcome!

 

Across the season, the Thunderhawks played 48 matches, won 23, drew 9 and lost 16. They scored 102 goals and conceded 66.

 

Well done Thunderhawks on an excellent year!

This season brought a lot of change for the Thunderhawks, we said goodbye to some good friends, Miloh, Sergei & Seweryn who had nearly 100 appearances (and nearly 200 goals)  between them sadly left the team. This was a challenge as we were moving to 7-a-side football, but we were fortunate to welcome some new players to the team, Ben, Kam, Jackson, Jeremi and Josh all joined to reinforce our numbers.

 

Another change was, that after two wonderful seasons in the Surrey Primary League, we moved to the South Surrey Youth League so that we could play on Saturdays. 

 

We started the season with a mini-tournament with two teams from Guildford and another GPR team, which went very well as we won 2 out of 3 games. Josh and Ben scored their first Thunderhawks goals in this one, with Harry, Ethan and Max also being goalscorers!

 

We then played a couple of full 7-a-side friendlies to tune up for the new league. We won both, 4-0 against a team from Burpham (in which Lewis opened his goalscoring account) and then an 11-1 win against another GPR team, with Kam scoring his first five (!) goals as well as a hat-trick for Harry (and 5 assists for Ethan)!

 

The league then started for real and we were placed in the second tier of teams. We were not sure how we would do without some key players from previous seasons, but we thrived in the new league. We won our first game 5-3, before a 9-1 away win at a team near Guildford. In these games, Henry got his first goals of the seaosn while Ethan and Harry both grabbed hat-tricks!

 

Two very tight games followed, but we won both 3-0 and 4-0, with some excellent defensive and goalkeeping performances emerging, notably there was a game in Dorking where Jeremi and Jackson combined to pull off a string of magnificent saves.

 

Having won our first 6 games of the season, we were elevated into the leagues top tier, which is where things got harder!

 

We started well enough with a 3-3 draw haing conceded a last second equaliser from a corner, in a game notable for producing the first goal from Jackson in his first season of competitive football.

 

However we then lost 3 games in a row although each was competitive (scores of 1-2, 3-6 and 3-4). This was a new experience, the teams we were playing were highly organised, streamed within their clubs and used specialist positons. We were pleased that Jeremi scored his first goal for the team though in one of these games!

 

Nonetheless we were encouraged by our performances and looking ofrward to continuing our development. Sadly this is when the pandemic worsened and we entered lockdown again, with play stopping for the rest of the winter...

 

When April came around we were excited to continue the season, and we opened with a 6-2 victory, with Henry, Kam, Ethan, Harry and Ben all finding the net. 

 

A couple of losses followed, Firstly 1-5 at Dorking, a game we had taken the lead through Max and in which Jackson bravely charged down a goalkeeper clearance with his nose (lots of blood) and nearly scored in the process. Then we lost 0-2 to a Farncombe team in another closely fought contest in which Jeremi brilliantly saved a penalty!

 

We knew that we wanted to stay in this tier of the league, we felt we deserved it with our performances, but we also knew that we needed to win our last game of the season to make this happen. Indeed both teams in that final game needed a win to remain in the tier so it was an exciting way to end the season.

 

A thrilling match ensured in which both teams defended resolutely, such that the game was goalless going into the final moments. Right at the end, Henry passed to Ethan on the wing, who just kept the ball in play before crossing the ball to Kam. Kam flicked up the ball and then volleyed it past the goalkeeper, we had won the game 1-0 and the team was very happy and excited!

 

In the end it was a successful season, we played 18 games including pre-season, and we won 10, drew 1 and lost 7. We scored 63 goals and conceded 40. We achieved a promotion to the top tier in the new league, and managed to hold on to our position there (although it was very hard)

 

 

We didnt play as many games as we would have liked in the end, but we still had fun despite the pandemic! Our 5 new players have settled into the team very well and we are very excited to see what the next season will bring!

 

Well done Thunderhawks!

 

We started our season high on confidence, having ended our first season in the SPL on a 7 game winning streak and having also achieved our first tournament win (at Manercroft) over the summer. We were excited to welcome our new signing Max to the team as we looked to develop further. 

 

Our early season form and our performances were excellent, Seweryn got the season going with a thunderbolt into the roof of the net from near the halfway line, and we barely looked back until Christmas -  we ended up extending our winning streak to 19 league games during which we scored a very impressive 117 goals! Max scored his first goal at Knaphill and we were having great fun using our skills and trying different positions on the pitch. Henry in particular excelled in this part of the season as he developed strong finishing skills to compliment his fantastic dribbling and started to wrack up goals.

 

We closed the year with a 5-1 away win against a team we had not previously been able to beat, with Miloh providing a dominant performance controlling possesion for our team, as well as picking up a couple of goals in the process!

 

The new year brought frozen pitches and a change in fortunes, we lost a sequence of games in January and confidence became an issue for us, we suddenly were finding games much harder and it was a new challenge. 

 

This is when our players showed their character and resilience, we found ourselves 4-0 down and on our way to a 4th successive defeat during a game in Guildford. But then Lewis scored with a brilliant long shot just before halftime to bring us back to 1-4. In the third quarter, Ethan rattled off an 8 minute hattrick and suddenly we were level!

 

In the final quarter a brace from Harry followed and we won the game 6-4, what a comeback!

 

In our next game, we again found ourselves behind, every shot our opponants took seemed to fly into the top corner. We battled hard but found we were losing 6-4 going into the last quarter. But two quickfire goals from Sergei, and another brace from Harry saw us come from behind late to win again, this time 8-7!

 

Two more comfortable wins of 11-3 and 8-4 followed and we were back to our old form and confidence but sadly, at this point, our season was cut short by the pandemic. 

 

Overall though we had another wonderful season, we introduced on pitch team talks by our captains who quickly overcame their nervousness of public speaking in front of their teammates to give a series of rousing and motivational speeches and we rotated our positions constantly, encouraging players to develop diferent skills for different situations. 

 

Most of all we had lots of fun, playing football, visitng new places, and making friends with our teammates!

 

I will close by noting that we learned at the end of the season that Sergei had been offered a place in the Southampton football academy - we are hugely proud of him and what his hard work has achieved. Sergei scored 52 goals and made 26 assists in 18 league appearances this season, which is the highest level of productivity ever recorded by any player in the GPR stats database, for any season, in any age group (and he wasnt even playing upfront most of the time). Sadly, for us, Sergei's commitment with Southampton mean he wont be able to continue with GPR next season, we will miss playing with him, but we are super excited to see what he can achieve next! Congratulations Sergei!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A great year - looking forward to being back playing again next season!