Sandal U8s produced one of their best performances yet at the Rochdale festival. Under a hot sun and on hard ground, conditions tested the players' endurance and concentration as well as their skill and teamwork. Fortunately, Sandal shone through on all scores.

And scores were the theme of the day. Sandal's youngsters have shown good technical skills all season but over the last month have really picked up the speed of their play, adding fluidity to their movement, improving teamwork in both defence and attack and a growing maturity to their decision making: overall, a combination which makes for a strong squad. How strong was demonstrated across their six matches against teams from the other four participating clubs. We don't count scores at Under-8s but a reliable source tells me that if we did, we wouldn't have had a deficit in any of those games and would have had a comfortable advantage in most of them! Obviously, that doesn't go for the crunch Sandal v Sandal game, where play was intense but still good-spirited! In fact, perhaps the most pleasing piece of feedback was about how the players conducted themselves - a true credit to the club.

The only downside to the day was a couple of hand injuries, with Chase having to withdraw from the final game after suffering a sprain and swelling in an earlier match. Unfortunately Jenson was less fortunate still and is out for the rest of the season with a broken finger. Best wishes to both players.

Overall, Rochdale ran a very enjoyable festival for the Mini Minors on the Saturday (ie the U7s to U9s - the older Minis were on the Sunday): a welcoming atmosphere, well-organised and some nice side attractions - the inflatable obstacle course went down particularly well! Thank you to them, and also to all the players, parents and supporters from Sandal.