Shortland Athletic FC 3 - 0 Old Whitgiftian Reserves
(Saturday, 08 September 2007)
MATCH REPORT
by Nixie
Anyone reading the following should be aware of one important thing... this was our first 'real' friendly of the season and although this match report will in parts appear to concentrate more on the negative, it is worth stressing that there were an awful lot of positives taken from the game. However, we lost this match with only 2 weeks before the season kicks off... and in my book it is better to concentrate on where we went wrong... and then work at putting it right.
The result ?... Maybe I was a bit culpable. Maybe I did play a few players out of position. Maybe my team talk should have consisted of a bit more than "show me what you can do."... and maybe I should have started with the 'experienced' line-up chosen by Vien before the game... I did ask him for his opinion after all.
Let's get the build up to the game out of the way first.
It was a lovely, late-summer afternoon in South East London blah, blah, blah. The lads met up at the Clubhouse (mostly) on time blah, blah. Lack of cars meant blah, blah, blah. Changed late... blah, blah and went outside to play football. Rob Tegg once again took the lads through a thorough warm-up before kick-off.
Out of the original 21 players listed we were whittled down to 17 as Alex Isthikar and Oli Ward failed to recover from knocks, Kris Kenyon's partner went into labour (need to get your priorities right mate... and she should go into politics outside of a Saturday), and we're still waiting to hear from Simon Santos.
+++Seriously - all the best to Kris + missus - we soon hope to be announcing the arrival of our newest Whitgiftian of the season+++
Now the original idea was for me to sit back, relax and observe the players in action in order to learn a bit more about them. Therefore, instructions were kept to a minimum and the first half started as follows;
| 1st HALF LINE-UP |
|---|
|
NIXIE BLADES - McDERMOTT - HIGGINS - BURNS SHKEMBIM - TEGG - JEWELL - MOSS DENNIS - PHAN |
From kick off, we started quite brightly and had the best of the early exchanges, but failed to make an opening.
I had taken a bit of a gamble with the back four by playing Joe Burns and Andy Blades out of position at Left and right back respectively. Andy was unfortunate in that I'd been given some duff information about him being a defender when in fact he was a forward. However, he played with gusto throughout the half and was the most vocal in demanding the ball whenever he was in space. Joe immediately confessed to having no left foot at all, but was happy to give it his all. It took him about 5 minutes to work out the position and then made saving tackle after tackle. In the centre of defence Richard McDermott made his Club debut by being thrown in the deep end, but having the experience of John Higgins alongside. Despite not knowing anyone, they both gelled pretty well, stood up to challenges and talked throughout.
Dean Moss started in left midfield and chased many a lost cause. He was unfortunate that most of our play came down our right hand side for the first half, meaning that he had to come looking for the ball a lot more if he wanted a touch. On the right, Kas Shkembim saw a lot more of the ball and when combining with Andy was able to make a number of runs at the opposition. In the centre were Dan Jewell and Robin Tegg, who both found it difficult to gel as Shortland's style saw Robin sucked into a number of defensive duties for long periods and left the team asking rather a lot of Dan on his own. They battled for everything, but often saw the ball flying well over their heads.
The forward line consisted of Vien Phan and Will Dennis. Both ran their hearts out but suffered from lack of service, particularly to feet. What service they did get was usually too high or too far in front of them.
Shortlands, steadily worked their way into the game and their advantage of higher overall fitness levels (and that this was not their first game together) started to tell. Their game plan was unashamedly route-one as well, routinely by-passing their midfield as the ball was knocked long whenever it came near their back four. They also relied heavily on a long throw into the box if the ball went out of play in our final third.
If this sounds like sour grapes or being disrespectful to the opposition, then let me assure you that is not the case. Truth is, we are likely to come across a number of very similar teams throughout our league campaign this season, and this sort of friendly is exactly the right game with which to prepare.
Although a new boy to the Club, I have seen enough of Old Whits over the years to know how they like to play the game... and what is and isn't acceptable. Yet I was most surprised to easily we resorted to playing the opposition's game... only we weren't as good at it!
The number one rule for this kind of fixture, where the ball is hit high and long, is that you watch the ball and not the player. The second rule is that you simply cannot afford to let the ball bounce in or across the box. Failure to carry out these two basic tasks is what ultimately cost us the game.
... and something I will be working very hard to eradicate from our game over the next couple of weeks.
Despite all this, we gave Shortlands very few chances on goal in the first half... in fact we only gave them one... when we conceded a rash penalty with a tackle from behind in the box, as their player was running away from goal. But in my opinion, it is always much better togive away penalties in friendlies than league or cup games.
Shortlands duly converted their penalty on the 20 minute mark and although they continued to apply pressure for the rest of the half, they were unable to break the resilience of our defensive play.
The half-time whistle came with the score still at 0-1.
| 2nd HALF LINE-UP |
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| TEGG AVDIU - HIGGINS - TARLTON - FERGUSON M AITKEN - JEWELL - DENNIS - FERGUSON R PHAN - STURDY |
The half-time team talk identified our weaknesses as well as the team's acknowledgment that we were indeed much better than what we had produced thus far. Six substitutions and two positional changes later, we took once again to the field of play.
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I made another mistakes with a player position when I brought on Richard Sturdy as a forward, instead of his strongest position on the left of midfield. I had done this on the basis of the previous week's game against the 1st team where his prowess in front of goal had been impressive. Richard made the most of the task, but was far more effective with his delivery from corners, through balls and set pieces. Robin Tegg offered to go in goal and I jumped at the opportunity to watch from the sidelines and make a few notes. Brothers Richard and Michael Ferguson came on at Left midfield and back respectively. They saw quite a bit of the ball and it was this side of the pitch that saw most of our creative play in this half. Dave Aitken came on at right midfield and immediately showed that he could take the ball forward and attack the opposition. He was protected at right back by Simon Avdiu and the final change was to bring on Michael Tarlton to put his experience and aerial prowess to good use.
The only real difference of note for this half is that despite conceding another two goals, we actually saw the majority of the possession and were camped out in the Shortland's half for much of the period. What let us down mostly was our retention of the ball and our inability (in this game) under pressure to string 2 or more passes together. On the sideline, counting consecutive passes kept us briefly entertained and I can personally only remember seeing 4 completed once. Shortland's were the same as well, but their game plan didn't rely on this... and they knew their game plan well.
The 2 goals we conceded in this half were (I'd like to think) more to do with lapses in concentration on our part than any build-up play. However, they were good goals in the way their forwards' finished them, when they still had a lot to do.
The second goal came on 55 minutes, when one of our centre-backs and left back got dragged out of position to mark one forward. As the ball was cleared from defence the forward started to trackback. As we lost possession again, the same forward (now in space on the left hand edge of the penalty area) received the ball, turned and shot low and hard into the bottom right hand corner of the goal before a defender had time cut across and block it.
Their third goal on 75 minutes was very similar to the second in that once again a central defender was covering elsewhere, only this time the ball was sent through the middle to their forward, who had space and time to go two yards further and lightly lob it over our advancing keeper.
Our only shot at goal came on 80 minutes, when Richard Ferguson fired in a fierce shot that their keeper could only parry. Unfortunately, we had no one in close proximity to tap it in and they were able to clear it away.
... and that was how it ended.
Despite conceding fitness, playing style and height... we still competed in all departments. Our three biggest assets were our work rate - commitment - and attitude. The most impressive thing for me, was that no one gave up and kept trying to find a way through. The team also listens... and that on its own is vital as it shows a wilingness to improve.
We have another tough task at Old Sedcopians next week in our final practice match before the league starts. This Wednesday, we will look to work on a number of weaknesses exposed today and make sure we take the game to them.
Should be a good one!
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