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Having only recently played Colchester and beaten them 3-0, I was confident that we could get a result. However, the first ten minutes were monumentally awful, and with Colchester one nil up, I feared the worst, and my voice, which had been resting now for weeks, found new clarity.
Essentially the problem initiated with a formation of my design. Five in the midfield was supposed to give us dominance and control of the ball, however it just resulted in too many of us crowding a small space. Add onto that our tendency to swipe at the ball, slicing it horribly, and quite quickly we found ourselves chasing back only to slice it again. Our tackling became desperate – at one stage I counted their little winger riding five sliding tackles. The ‘ball in the hedge, over the hedge, in the road’ count was going up faster than my blood pressure. Calum’s must have also been high as he had to come off with a nose bleed.
Louis came to the rescue. After Harry fed Joe, our left winger played Louis in. Riding the pressure from the defender he kept his balance and slid the ball home with his left foot. We were starting to pass the ball and ten minutes later a neat move resulted in our second. Louis and Sam combined together with some neat one two passing, before Louis played a diagonal ball to Luke on the far right. Keeping his cool and his head down Luke drove the ball low and hard to put us in front. Louis was denied a second after an excellent tussle with the last defender resulted in a shot well saved by the Col keeper. Moments later a poor clearance left Louis with the ball with his back to goal. A neat turn and shot meant that we went in at half time 3-1 up. We were certainly not coasting. Thomas had made a fine two handed save and their tall striker had powered a cracking header onto the top of the bar, so we were lucky to have a two goal cushion.
In the second half we resorted to 4-4-2, with Cameron becoming a second striker, and with Calum dropping into the defence. Off came Stammers and Sam, to be replaced by Daniel. Cameron had been given strict instructions – hold the ball up and look for a midfielder. This he did superbly, feeding Luke who drifted a sidefooted shot gently over the flailing arms of the keeper. We were starting to look comfortable, and our defence was looking solid, with Calum and Jack holding things down in the centre and Pat and Jake comfortable on the wings. Harry was bossing midfield – a highlight being his double footed drag back to create space. This dominance resulted in our fifth. Harry headed on a throw in and Louis reacted first, volleying into the top corner from just inside the box.
With a quarter of the match still to play the team was re-jigged, with Louis coming off and Jack moving into the centre. Mark took over defensive duties, and Harry went up front. We certainly relaxed too much, as we let two more goals in. I can’t comment on either one as on both occasions I was fishing balls out of the hedge. Whilst I was disappointed that our defence had been plundered, I was not concerned about the result.
Harry won man of the match because he worked tirelessly throughout the game, and sometimes I come to expect that of him, and therefore don’t praise him enough. He also worked hard to set a more positive Captain’s example this week – so well done. Praise also to Colchester Athletic – one of the few fair minded teams we have played against. A nice bunch.
Thanks to Val for snacks, James for the line and to all the supporters. Mrs Scorer kindly took the kit, but Cameron lost his blue umbro tracksuit trousers – if you picked them up can you let me know.
No training this week – I will organise something for half term week and post it on the website.
Dave |