UD PRE-SEASON HIGHLIGHTS
MAY 2024
LONDON
Our Pre-Season Programme delivered another month of beautiful football as glimpses of summer began showing itself across Regents Park.
A number of our teams faced friendly matches against local opposition Highgate Rangers, who brought their teams down in a festival of football.
Both of our U8s played hard-fought games with one of our teams running out 5-1 winners, whilst the other, a defeat against a top opposition that took their chances well.
Resounding victories for our U10s and U11s this month, with both teams scoring 4 and 5 goals, respectively, both keeping clean sheets in the process.
It was a tight and tense game for our U15 Girls this month, who ground out a narrow 1-0 win against Highgate Rangers, a team that provides close encounters with every game. A 1-0 lead is never comfortable but the girls did brilliantly to maintain the lead throughout, defending valiantly until the final whistle.
Our U8s merged for their last game of the month to face a club derby, coming up against United Dragons St Alban’s. Momentum swung back and forth all game but it was UD London that came out on top, with a 5-3 scoreline thanks to a hattrick from Nathan Aboody, who took home the match ball!
Elsewhere we had an U8 and U10s representing the UD badge at the Arsenal Summer League, with our U8s winning both of their games and our U10s winning 2 and losing 1 of their 3 matches this month.
As the sun begins to shine and summer on the horizon, we can think of no better place to be on the weekend than at our UD Pre-Season Programme!
ST ALBANS
Our Pre season is now well underway and has been a brilliant exercise to keep our players ticking over. So far we have been focusing most of our attention around match scenarios and some in game tactical work to give our players the edge over opposing teams come September when the season kicks off again!
Our first game of the pre season programme was a huge success and an impressive display, a slow start perhaps but once our players got to grips with what is a new format for many of them (7aside) they really grew into the game and were deservedly the victorious team coming away with a 5-3 win over Alexandra Palace Youth.
Over the weekend we had our very first 'Clash of the Dragons fixture' which saw us fall narrowly short against our sister club UD London, a brilliant occasion marrying up both UD London and UD St Albans and something we'll definitely be looking forward to doing again! Looking forward we plan to continue working around game based topics but also making sure there is an individual learning outcome for each specific player to take away from our sessions, with the pre season group being slightly smaller than our usual Sunday training group it allows us to really focus on each and every player's development.