Today we spoke in the changing room before the game about 3 things in particular that we needed to correct after our last game, firstly we needed to start quickly and take the game to the opposition, secondly we needed to talk more on the pitch and communicate with each other and thirdly we needed to stop giving away stupid free kicks in dangerous areas. At least this is what I thought I said, because for the first half we did none of these things and it resulted in us conceding two goals that I think even the players would admit that an under elevens side would be disappointed to concede.
Although we did look dangerous when going forward and when we pressed them high up the pitch they made mistakes. The problem was we didn’t do it on a consistent enough basis in the first half to put them under pressure for any period of time. Saying this we did have one or two very good opportunities were we should probably have scored, which I think if we did they would have crumbled. Another problem we have is our final ball when we get into good positions we seem to rush and this results in us not turning possession into opportunities.
Defensively first half we were poor, it is only minor problems that doesn’t take much to correct but the players have to do this themselves as they have the ability. Firstly the communication is poor (this is true all around the pitch, but more importantly in defence) the majority of the players have a lot to say for themselves before the game, during warm ups and in the pub after the game but not much during the game. We have two or three players that shout a lot trying to gee the team up which is good, but we do not really have many players that organise and can control the defence or midfield. We also seem to struggle with clearing our lines, when we should just be putting our foot through the ball and putting the ball as far from our area as possible, some players either hold on to the ball for to long or don’t make a very good connection with the ball and it goes no where. Although I don’t want the players to play long ball football, sometimes a ball over the oppositions full back is a good ball as it gets their defence turned.
We went in at half time 2 goals down, but still in the game we had to be far more solid defensively and try and press the opposition much further up the pitch as they looked shaky when we did this, and to the players credit the second half couldn’t have started any better, with us scoring within a couple of minutes with Ben Brooker finishing well.
We played better in the second half and battled well to try and get back into the game, but could not really get going. Our passing was pretty poor throughout the game and must improve. Saying this we had 3 or 4 really good opportunities to score but could not quite get the equaliser.
We had quite a lot of possession second half and a lot of freekicks around the box but couldn’t turn this pressure into a goal. There were some positives to come from the game, Rob James played his first game of the season for us and did well and was unlucky not to score, Marcus the goalkeeper again looked solid and his kicking is improving, Lee Gunning put in a decent performance after a long lay off, Matt Rice-Tucker got into some decent positions and put in some decent crosses (and some poor ones) and in the second half the defence looked tight and only looked a little vulnerable when we were pushing to get the other goal back.
Overall a disappointing day as we were easily as good and probably better than them as a team, but they had one or two more experienced players who probably won the game for them.
Team
M.Lawrence
L.Smith
D.Hymers
T.Bowyer
R.James
A.Donaldson
M.Wood
Lee Gunning
M.Rice-Tucker
A.Evans
B.Brooker
Sub
A.Salvidge