MID SEASON REVIEW.

Review from: Coach Andy Render

As the weather conspired to wash out Annan U16s final league game versus Cambuslang on Sunday the league season has now come to an end and offers a good time to take stock on the squad’s performance to date.

At the start of the season Annan’s coaches set a minimum target of fulfilling every one of their fixtures and the players, coaches and all families and supporters can be proud that this has been achieved. The league standings show Annan 5th of the 12 with a record of 5 wins, 4 losses and 2 cancelled games.

However, there is more to these statistics; the five wins include the good performances away at Kilmarnock and Stewartry but also the Ardrossan and Strathaven games when the opposition had insufficient players for a full team and conceded the game but in the subsequent Development games Annan produced lethargic displays to ‘lose’ on the field. In addition, Waysiders were unable to fulfil their trip to Violetbank and conceded the points to Annan. It should be noted that Waysiders top the league with 9 wins most with comfortable margins.

On the flip side of this is that one of Annan’s losses came in the opening game versus Greenock when they had no experienced front row players to meet the league’s rules. Annan performed well in the Development game that was held and had the game been held a few weeks later may have seen another win for the Tigers.

It has been pleasing for the coaches to see the team develop over the last 4 months. Forward play has improved at the set piece and in the loose and when the team play with cohesion they have produced some sparkling attack play and strong defence. Numbers have also generally been good at training and it is hoped that this will continue over the rest of the season.

Annan have not entered the cup competitions ran by the SRU and so will be looking to arrange reverse fixture friendlies with the teams from their league as well as some other local teams, one of which will be Langholm on Tuesday 28th on the Langholm 3G pitch with a 7.45pm kick off.