We arrived early, it wasn’t raining, we passed the time of day, then the other game ended.
Our team was then beasted by RSM Breese to do a warm up followed by our training passing routine that we did very badly and were able to replicate periodically during the match. The first quarter of the game was our most successful period that included the best goal of the match.
Graham around the back through Dave to Nick, up the line to Jack, on to Carlos then somehow it came to Darren who pounced on the ball and it ended up in the net. With what followed later, it was difficult to believe that we managed such a slick move. Having taken the lead various defenders decided to pass it to the opposition. We let two in before half time as we seemed to take defenders off and on more times than a Bride’s nighty.
There then followed the reverse of the normal half time team talk. Usually the defenders keep quiet, we know the attackers are doing their best, and that we can do better than them, but this time it gave the forwards chance to moan at the defence even though the forwards had again squandered several chances or even failed to control easy passes. The formation of 4,3,3 was discussed, should it be 4,4,2 as we were getting over run in the middle.
The captains decision to move RSM to a forward did give us more options , particularly down the right as when we lost the ball RSM hadn’t moved and so was in position to make up a mid-field four.
Man of the match was well deserved by Tuck who continues to organise the defence in front of him and quickly closes down the forwards who get through. I had feared we would be playing against 13 but their umpires were fair and generous. They should have given the oppo a penalty when it hit the feet of Dave near the line, and in the 2nd half they put in a short corner using a slap that went above back board height.
We did keep going and when our midfield and forwards combined to close down the oppo in their half we gained a lot of ball. The system of fining players who get cards did not reap any extra money today. Perhaps if we fine each pass we make that goes out of play or to the oppo at a rate of 50p for each offence that would net us 70 mins play at 2 bad passes a minute the grand total of an extra £70 in the kitty per game.
Their third goal was a missed placed shot that a player wide of the post managed to direct in. At the back we did not attack the ball enough, partially because of the confusion of who was actually playing where and also because their forwards bothered to make runs off the ball. That is not how we play the game!
I personally enjoyed the game, I did not think we played as a team often enough i.e. one or two players were involved a lot of the time with little support around them and this was all over the pitch. If as a team we could press them when they get the ball wide we would get more of the ball. Thanks again to Carlos for organising us, we did not moan at each other or the umpires. We all know we could have done better both individually and as a part of the team.