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Just two weeks ago we were thumped by HP. Before the match I said to the boys winning or losing was not important, but playing with confidence was. They responded fantastically, and only some extra ordinary decisions and our own propensity to self destruct stopped us going into the next round.
It was a beautiful spring morning to play this much postponed game, but the wait was worth it. I trialed a new formation, with only 3 at the back. Within the first ten minutes this looked a bad decision as our defending began to take on our customary keystone kops style. Alan Hansen would need an extra large hard drive to store his analysis of how we could improve at times. However, just as I looked away up stepped Harry C to drive a long range effort into the net. I was told that it was rather special. Then miraculously we moved two up. Harry fed James who burst through and netted very calmly passed HP’s rather fragile keeper. Towards the end of the half HP responded to take us in at half time one up.
Now guess what happened next… they scored from a corner. We struggle to make any contact to any corner, either in defence or attack – I just don’t know why.
It was around now that some classic decisions began to be made. A HP defender stood one yard away at a crucial free kick and despite my yelling there was no response. None. Unfortunately we tried to play around the offender when we should have held our ground and a real goal scoring opportunity went away. It seemed that the louder the HP coaches yelled the more the decisions were being reversed. Louis scored, diving in with his head following good work from Luke and for a moment it looked like we might hold on. We then began shooting ourselves in the foot. Whenever we had the opportunity to get the ball under control, or put it into their territory, we just kicked air. The game seemed to be going on forever (the ref must have had Fergie’s watch on) when we made two fatal errors. Poor decision making on our part gave HP another corner and although we blocked that one, a second followed, and again we conceded.
Extra time and like a marriage made in hell our own poor decision making met up with someone else’s and instead of a goal kick which Jake could have thumped away from our goal, HP had another corner. Guess what? We failed to clear and from the resultant scramble they scored. It reminded me very much of the Halstead game – the frustration is so immense because we work so hard to put ourselves into fantastic positions against tough opposition but lack the composure to know how to cope with the pressure.
Good performances today from Jake, Josh, Harry C and Harry LA. Also Calum, James and Daniel did very well. Man of the match was close between George and Patrick, but Pat shaded it, having taken a knock early on but recovering well.
Oh well, we gave them a fright. Thanks to Val for snacks and Kevin the line. |