The TEAM Comes First

Subs

• P.Barber for Mcloughlin

• Askey for Halloran

I am going to try something quite tricky here.  1st I am going to try not to and get carried away with 1 win, but at the same time I can’t praise everybody enough for the passion, commitment and desire that was shown on a horrible night in Bromsgrove.

After the great strides made in the past 3 or 4 weeks we let ourselves down badly on Sunday.  I had worried about the knock on effect but was more than pleasantly surprised by the player’s attitudes.  In recent weeks there has been 1 specific change made in the way things have been done from Mark and my point of view.  We always try our best to play players in positions they favour. Sometimes we even go against our desire to see somebody in a certain position if he is against the idea.  After the bad set of results we had we felt it was make or break time for the TEAM and we decided to go with our instincts on certain players.

We started by adding pace to the back four with Matty Barber.  That worked our relatively well but we soon realised we were taking one of our more attack minders players out of a midfield that already hasn’t contributed many goals.  Henry is a keen midfielder who does a great defensive job for the team.  So dropping him into the defence made sense, and that allowed Matt Barber to get further forward. 

Although Henner’s wasn’t overly keen he slotted in as if he had played there his whole life and put in a Captains performance.  Matt’s addition to the midfield seemed to add a spark and although he needed some time to find his feet, he settled in and crucially made the winning goal for Alex with a bit of magical footwork that we have lacked in that area of the pitch.

And on to Graham…I have been critical of him at times for looking for personal gain over the TEAM’S success.  As you all know he has sat it out on the bench in recent weeks waiting patiently for his chance.  I have told him I will not play him up front until I see him putting the TEAM 1st.  Well, he sure did that here.  Graham ran his heart out.  Defending for long periods.  Heading corners away, winning tackles and charging down shots.  I have never doubted Grahams ability…just his priorities.  Well I think he has taken in big step in the right direction tonight.  A Graham that is working toward the TEAM effort is obviously a big benefit to the team.

The reason for the headline “ The team comes 1st” is aimed at everything I have said above.  Matt Barber and Henry playing at right back when they’d rather not.  Graham doing left wing, and all for the TEAM.  This hasn’t happened before but slowly but surely the TEAM is coming before the individual.

Onto Mark Williams.  I pressure him more than anybody to perform.  He really cops the dirty end of the stick with me.  On a huge pitch he covered every blade of grass and then some, against a quality midfield.  Remember a win for Halesowen would have taken them into 2nd place.  I asked the lads to dent their promotion hopes and boy, did they.

In recent weeks we have played 3rd placed Knowle and kept a clean sheet, and now 2nd placed Halesowen and conceded only an own goal.  Defensively this TEAM is moving forward.  And I do mean the team, not just Jim, Scott and Mike.  Dylan and Graham did vital jobs working back on a big pitch.

We haven’t scored nearly enough goals and it was good to see two relatively new faces getting on the score sheet.  Mike Halloran chased a lost cause to slot us in front and Alex scored yet another wonder goal to win us the game.

A great win, well deserved on effort alone.  Thanks to all for putting yourselves out to get the boys over to the game.  And the support for the TEAM was excellent.

As I said at the start lets not get carried away on 1 win.  We have 3rd and 4th place teams in the next 2 games.  If we all continue to put what’s best for TEAM ahead of the individual then we will have a chance.

Steve