National Roller Hockey Association

November 2011 National Training Weekend

nrha — Sat, 08 Oct 2011 17:41:32 +0000

Under 17 Open Sessions (Project 2012)
Last month we started the open session for the assessment of players as part of the preparation for U17 European Championships 2012. Any player who currently attends level 4 or level 5 on Saturday, and born in 1996 and 1997 are eligible to attend this open session. As we did for for the preparation for 2011, players MUST still attend the Saturday session, as well as the Sunday open session. Players who have not previously attended National Training and would like to be a part of the open session, must contact me prior to attending, as they will be required to attend Saturday as well as Sunday.

Under 20 Open Session (2012)
This month we start the open session for the assessment of players as part of the preparation for U20 European Championship 2012. Any player born in 1993, 1994 and 1995 are eligible to attend the U20’s open session.

Please can you let me know if you are attending NTW in October or not as soon as possible.

Player Group
Group Timetable

Christmas Camp
Players wish to attend the Christmas Camp can register at this month National Training as part of the continuing development of English roller hockey.
This will also be an opportunity to assess players for Project 2012 prior to announce the “Reduced Squad” in January 2012.

World Seniors Final Report

nrha — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 20:49:33 +0000

Since 2001 we have been participating in Group A (6 Championships in total), although we were relegated in 2001 and 2003 and promoted the following year. We learnt lessons from the years when we were relegated and consequently we prepared the team to ensure we would stay up in Group A, 2005 being our best participation.

Since 2006 I have not been happy with the way we have prepared the teams for the Europeans and Worlds Championships. The lack of commitment from the players due to financial, family and work commitments have made very difficult for the Senior Team to follow a preparation plan, we had in some competitions turned up without managing to have all 10 players training together prior to the Championships.

This year was even worst as in March we didn’t have players enough that could commit financially to participate in San Juan. We considered not participating in this competition but fortunately we managed to get 10 players could commit to attend the Worlds. However we still had problems to train the team, we didn’t have a practice session with final squad together, the only time we managed to be together was in Argentina in a warm up game.

The reality is that we were very luck staying up in 2009 with another bad preparation but as I always said we need to be prepared to end up in Group B if things don’t change. So, here we are back to Group B and now it is time to start new era for seniors.

As a final note at this year’s Championship the team played well together in defence and attack, probably the England Senior Team had more ball possession and produced more goal opportunities, than in previous Championships. Quite often for 75% of our matches we were competitive and sometimes in control, however the reason we lost the majority of these games was due to lack of concentration and competitive fitness, mental and experience in short periods of the games which cost us most of the goals conceded.

We need to become sharper to be more competitive at this level, this way we will convert more of our chances and reduce the period where the team lose the control of the game.

England 7 South Africa 4 (Half-Time 3-3)

England showed their pride

We decided to rotate all the players in this game giving more time to the players didn’t play as much during the week, also the start line were never on the rink at the same time.

England began the game very slow and lack of concentration in defence which caused us to be 3-0 down. A couple of changes and inspiring the need for the players to show more enthusiasm. The team started to play more consistent and we managed to get 3-3 before half-time.

At Half-Time we insisted the players to show their pride and the second half was a much better consistent game in defence pressuring half way line. Good attack moves with good ball circulation resulted in a justified final score.

Goals scorer:
Owen Stewart – 2 goals
Marc Waddingham – 2 goals
Michael Ableson – 2 goals
James Taylor – 1 goal

England 3 Holland 4 (Half-Time 2-0)

3 Minutes of a hell

England dominated all first half, defending very well man to man restricted, with counter attacks. We had a lot of ball possession and the 2 goals came from switch and number 3 moves.

In the second half we lost the consistency of our game although we still dominating, with the result 3-2 to us we had very bad last 3 minutes of the game where the team lost control and Holland scored winning goal with 26 seconds to go.

We only can blame ourselves for this result as we missed lot of goal opportunities in both halves which can’t happen at this level.

Goal scorers:
James Taylor – 2 goals
Marc Waddingham – 1 goal

World Seniors Angola too strong for a weakened England

nrha — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 20:41:08 +0000

England 1 Angola 7 (Half-Time 1-3)
England came into this game with 3 players unwell for the last 24 hours (James, Owen and William), that being said after conceding an early goal England reacted very well and scored a goal to equalise. As tiredness arose in the team due to the sharpness of the Angola players and the commitment shown to stay with them we had to rotate all the players frequently and unfortunately we conceded 2 more goals before half-time.

In the second half we decided to rest the main players with the objective that they will be fresh for the 2 remaining games which we need to win to stay up in Group A.

We are in the same situation as the previous 3 Championships, we will play Holland tomorrow 10:30 hours local time (14:30 hours BST) and we hope to have all players fit and keep our positive mind set to win this game.

Goal scorer:
James Taylor

Other results:
Switzerland 3 South Africa 2
Germany 3 Holland 2
Colombia 5 USA 2
Portugal 6 France 3
Brazil 6 Mozambique 9
Spain 5 Italy 2
Argentina 13 Chile 3

World Seniors Competitive Game England lost to spells of Blues sharpness

nrha — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 20:57:54 +0000

England 1 France 5 (Half-Time 0-2)
England started the game versus one of the top teams in the world (3rd last Europeans and 5th last Worlds) showing improvement on the previous 2 games. We were consistent in our defence system and had good counter attacks. England still had good ball possession often using 2 touch play, creating a few goal opportunities.

The result at half-time was not a fair representation of the game, France couldn’t get through our defence and 2 long shots from experienced players cost us the 2 goals.

At half-time we corrected this problem by asking the players to close down the man with ball. Also we re-enforced the need to move for each other away from the French pressure.

Consequently England had one the best periods of this competition playing well, concentrated in defence, with a lot of ball possession penetrating the French team, which was demonstrated in the first 12 minutes of the second half, where we scored a great goal and didn’t concede.

At this moment we were 2-1 down and then a few lapses in concentration and French sharpness made a result greater than the reflexion of the majority of the game.

Goal scorer:
Owen Stewart
We will play Thursday Angola for 9th/16th places at 12:00 local time (16:00 BST)

World Seniors Strong performance against a quality team

nrha — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 03:15:10 +0000

England 2 Brazil 7 (Half-Time 0-6)
England started this game against Brazil (4th in the last world championships) with good attitude and concentration and held them for 10 minutes before conceding the first goal. In this period we defended well with man to man restricted defence having many second tackles, which allowed us to win the ball consistently setting up good counter attacks. We had the confidence in this game to play the carousel frequently, often, with 2 touch play. Unfortunately in the last 4 minutes of the first half our team had a lapse in concentration which cost us 4 goals.
At half-time we calmed down the players asking them to keep their focus and also their belief that they could perform as they had done for the majority of the first half.
A very good performance in the second half seen by the result, 2-1 to us. England coped with full rink pressure, transporting the ball to the attacking area and keeping ball possession.
The best of this half was to see our team to play for each other as a unit and the players showed progress from yesterday’s game.
The objective for this game was to play everyone to ensure we maintain our fitness levels for the whole competition and all the players performed well.
Goal scorers:
James Taylor & Owen Stewart

Results from our Group:
Brazil 8 France 1
France 4 Columbia 2

World Seniors England showed two sides

nrha — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 03:08:12 +0000

England 1 Colombia 5 (Half-Time 1-2)
England started the game very well with our system in place. We defended man to man restricted, pressuring the man with the ball which gave us confidence to retain possession of the ball for long periods. However our goal came from a fantastic counter attack move which came from a pass a cross of the face of the goal and finished at the far post, 1-0 for England.
Unfortunately 2 mistakes cost us 2 goals, we were enjoying the play up to this point, and then we lost control of the game.
At half-time we spoke to the players to get more shots on goal, with a player in the area. Also we re-enforced the need to go back in the second half, to forget the score and to regain control of the game, through quality defence and ball possession.
England took on board the comments from half time with some good play, this was foiled by a fantastic attack move from Colombia, which created their third goal , making life more difficult for us.
We called time out and instructed the players to pressure full rink, as the score was 1-3. England made this tactical change fully aware that we would leave space for the Colombians to attack should they regain possession.
We created several goal scoring opportunities which unfortunately we didn’t convert. In the same period Colombia exploited the space and managed to score 2 more goals. We knew this tactic was risky but it was necessary in the circumstances and I was very pleased that, apart from the 2 counter attack moves from Colombia, England were in control once again of the final 10 minutes of the game.
We know that the next 2 games (Brazil and France) will not be easy as they are top 5 in the world. However we will be going to attempt to win these games but fully appreciate the need to keep the players fit enough for our most important game which will be on Thursday.
Goal scorer:
Owen Stewart

World Under 20’s Final Report

nrha — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 07:46:30 +0000

England participated in this World Championship with one of the youngest teams, 7 players in their first year of this category. The objective was to become more competitive to ensure that we will able play for top 5 in the Europeans next year and a possible top 6 finish in the worlds in 2 years’ time.
We had a great first game versus Chile, which unfortunately we didn’t win, this game would have meant a top 8 finish, but some wrong decisions from referees when we were 1-0 up helped an experienced Chile team to win.
During the week we performed well showing already the team has quality enough to be in the top 8 of this competition, however our group was a very difficult one and third place in that group meant we finished same position as 2 years ago.
Now we are looking forward for the next World Championships where our group will be Italy, France and USA. The teams of Italy and France will be mainly the players had participated in last year Europeans Under 17 in Northampton. So we will have a good chance in this World Championships with the goal of a top 6 finish.

Carlos Amaral

World Under 20′ Tiredness affected performance

nrha — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 07:43:53 +0000

England 7 South Africa 2 (Half-Time 4-0)
England had a comfortable win against a young South African Team, we played the most of the game pressuring to the half way line, but our concentration levels at times were not the best.
This game gave us the opportunity to rotate all the players and although most of our goals were from individual moves we had 2 nice team goals. South Africa scored their 2 goals during a period when England was not concentrating in defence, giving too much space in the area.
At the end of the game our players made a nice gesture offering their sticks to the South Africa Manager to help kids to play roller hockey, back in Johannesburg. This decision had the full backing of our President Keith Allen, who had been impressed by the work being done in South Africa to encourage people to play roller hockey and their need for more equipment to increase their numbers.
Goal scorers:
Liam Conroy – 2 goals
Sam Norton – 2 goals
Han Wei Lim – 1 goal
William Smith – 1 goal
Josh Taylor – 1 goal

World Under 20’s Very competitive game

nrha — Sat, 17 Sep 2011 09:19:30 +0000

England 2 Angola 5 (Half-time 1-1)

England and Angola started the game respected each other with both teams playing restricted man to man pressuring the man with the ball.

In the first 10 minutes we were not sharp enough missing most of the times the player in the front of the goal then we called a time out to correct this problem which created many more goal opportunities in the goal area. Fair result at half-time.

In the second half England started very well creating clear cut goal chances unfortunately they were not converted and Angola scored on the counter attack, the first 2 goals put the score at 1-3. Then our job became more difficult as we were playing a very experienced team with 3 players playing in Portugal league and one in the Spanish league as well as the majority of their team being in their last year Under 20’s.

Goal scorers:

Josh Taylor – 1 goal

Sam Norton – 1 goal

World Under 20’s Another comprehensive win

nrha — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 23:06:32 +0000

England 19 USA 0 (Half-time 11-0)

England went into this game confident of our superiority and we started the game pressuring USA half rink. This way we controlled the game and the goals flowed.
We asked the players to concentrate on working for each other and ball possession which allowed us to score nice team goals.
The gap in the score line was high this was due to our movement off the ball which broke down American defence.
Goal scorers:
Nick Flint – 5 goals
William Smith – 4 goals
Sam Norris – 3 goals
Michael Carter – 2 goals
Han Wei Lim – 2 goals
Liam Conroy – 1 goal
Sam Norton – 1 goal
Josh Taylor – 1 goal