This week we came up against one of the sides who in my opinion will be in the promotion race this year and who are in all honesty a million miles away from us, but a team we have to look to if we are to do anything at this club over the next few years. I’m not just talking about the players but myself and Alun as co-managers will need to start having a bigger input as well. We have tried to be a bit lenient towards the players so far as we are new to this, but it doesn’t seem to be working. After a promising hour last week against Woodstock Park we went backwards again today with what I consider our worst performance so far. Although at times we played some good football and created chances our defending and willingness to work for each other was extremely poor.
Starting with training on a Wednesday (this applies to all players over the both days), last week it started well but soon descended into a farce, the players we have are not good enough to not train and then go out on a Saturday and win football matches. I know we are only an amateur side and there should be enjoyment but the attitude at times is disappointing. We are not far off having a team that could compete at this level, but to do this we need players that are fit and committed. This isn’t just an off the cuff remark, the slide has been gradual over a couple of years. Although this doesn’t apply to everyone we all as players and managers have to take it upon ourselves to improve.
I was told by some people that I probably shouldn’t be so critical but I feel that the players also feel exactly the same way as myself, but if they don’t then there is the problem. Right enough of the rant, we started with a 4-4-2
J. Ramskill GK
R.Taylor LB
D.Hymers CB
T. Bowyer CB
M.Wood RB
C. Ells LM
B.Leete CM
A. Lindsey CM
L. Gent RM
A.Evans ST
J. Gale ST
Subs:
G. Hughes
A.Donaldon
For the first time this season everyone turned up and were on time so we had a chance to go through a proper warm up, a lot of good it did us as for the first ten minutes we were not even in the game. Otford capitalised on the first of our failed off side attempts, although we encourage the side to squeeze the play at times and not drop too deep I feel that playing offside is too difficult at this level especially when we don’t train (sorry still moaning). After this it kicked us into gear a little bit we started passing the ball and breaking down the wings, which is one thing we do quite well, with the pace we have going forward we are always very dangerous, but when we don’t take our chances or our final ball is poor against Otford on Saturday who move the ball very well we look vulnerable. I feel we sometimes have to slow down our play as we often do everything at 100mph which causes us to give the ball away, if we just kept the ball for a while it also gives our defence time to get their shape and get organised.
We started the second half the same way as the first and Otford increased their lead in almost identical fashion with another poorly executed offside trap, communication at the back must improve. As we passed the hour mark fitness took its toll and we conceded two soft goals that you would be disappointed to concede at school boy level. With 15 minutes to go we suddenly kicked into life and created our best chances off the game, resulting in Alun crossing and Alex Donaldson pressuring their centre half who turned the ball into his own net (although Alun is trying to claim it) had enough good chances to score a couple more, although we did not deserve anything from the game.
Final result a 4-1 loss, we obviously have a lot to work on and will have to stop conceding simple goals and go back to basic defending. We also need to find more players so I am asking players to ask friends, people they work with, people they play football with on a Sunday if they want to play.
Michael Brown