Hi all

I fell into managing an Under 7s side a few months back. We had 6 players originally and I put some adverts out and managed to get us a squad of 10 - however we found upon trying to register them that 4 of them aren't 6 yet and can't be registered until their birthdays meaning we have 6 for our "league" games.

We've had 3 friendlies so far; all ending in defeat; and our first league game yesterday which also ended in a heavy 11-1 defeat.

I feel responsible that I may be letting them down, and I don't want them to lose demotivation as i've come into it primarily wanting to help them find their love of the game and that ability doesn't matter so much however when we play other teams and they are so much more dominant all I can see happening if it continues is my children losing their enjoyment and wanting to leave. Every game we've played the opposition always look so much bigger physically  than my children; it's like U8s vs U7s and yesterday it looked like the opposition CB was about a foot taller than my tallest player. We don't have a specialist goalkeeper so everyone is taking turns; we have a child who seems to have little to no attention on the game and only runs towards the ball if it is near him and we call for him to chase it.

It's really surprised me how organised and the levels of ability for the 4 teams we've played so far and I can't help but feel are we not doing enough for our children; or have we just been mega unlucky? I just assumed most teams would be more about the fair play and helping the kids of both teams enjoy their football but the competitive nature really is soul destroying. 

Does anyone have any advise to overcome this? Anything you feel I can be doing differently? I don't want to let the kids down or walk away from them and I don't intend to for a second I just want to make it as enjoyable for them even if we don't win any games.