LEARN FROM THIS

 Subs

• Mcloughlin for Halloran

• Foster for Williams

• Halloran for Hay

The 3rd round of the Open Cup pitched us against Local Rivals Sheldon Colts.  This was possibly the worst fixture we could have had after beating Phoenix last week as getting the lads up for it and focussed was more difficult than I had hoped.

We again used this game to ring the changes.  Henry dropped into defence in place of Jack.  Top goalscorer Dylan was also left out to give “Cup Specialist” Ryan a chance to continue his great run of goals in Cup competition.  Graham was on holiday and we were having our 1st look at Mark and Rob as a midfield partnership.  Sonny was back in the midfield.  All in all we made 8 changes from last week’s win.

This game was always going to be a banana skin as we were in a no win situation.  When I arrived it had the feel of a friendly about it.  A lot of the lads knew each other from school and when there was a kit clash and we had to wear bibs, it almost became farcical. 

Our performance was average at most but at least we can walk away with a place in the Quarter Finals.  Winning when you do not perform well is a sign of the very best teams. Even though our performance was unspectacular, we were always comfortable.  Goalkeeper Steve was only really called into action on set pieces as the Sheldon player took a very good corner.

A scrappy game gradually got worse in quality.  We started reasonably well and had most of the ball.  Our passing was extremely poor at times and no sooner had we gained possession, we were giving it away again.  Defensively we were sound but our midfield failed to provide options for passes.  Our wide players were particularly bad positionally, either standing too far away from the game or too close to a defender to allow us to get them the ball.  Mark and Rob seemed to be playing in cruise control rather than the top gear of recent performances.

Chances did start to come and there were one or two nice moves.  Henry was linking up well with Sonny but far too often our final pass was poor.  Again the forwards, like the midfield did not take up good enough positions for our midfield to pick them out.  Ryan was one of the few plusses to come out of this game. He looked our most likely player in the early stages.  His header from Dayle’s cross flashed wide before he did put us in front from another Dayle cross. 1-0

We had more chances to kill it off.  A goalmouth scramble saw 3 our players have shots saved.  Henry probably should have scored but credit to their keeper.  Halloran began to get more involved and his left foot shoot was inches wide before he did break through to make it 2-0.

We seemed to take our foot of the gas at this point.  Sheldon were seeing more possession and Peter and the other defenders were called into action.  Rob did test the keeper before half time but again it was well saved.

The 2nd half was very disappointing.  We did not do much at all in the way of creating chances.  The midfield was becoming a bit of a minefield and the tall Sheldon striker was more of a handful.  Our wingers had disappeared from the game completely and our forwards were too far away from the action to influence it.  Luckily, as Sheldon were getting a foot hold in the game Dylan latched on to some good work from Rob before smashing the ball into the far corner.3-0 and that was always going to be enough to kill the game off.

Sheldon battled on bravely without really creating much.  They did get a well deserved goal when Matt made a rash challenge to give a free kick away.  Another good delivery was well headed home.  3-1.

So, on to the Quarter Finals in both cups now and we will of course need to perform better to progress.  Our momentum is good and maybe this was the right game to put in a poor performance.  I think we need to remember that there is a fine line between confidence and arrogance.  We cannot afford to start thinking that we are going to win games without earning the right to do it.  We have gotten this far with hard work and commitment.

I have not been left disappointed many times this season but today I was not entirely happy with the way we went about things.  With Chelmsley to come twice in the next two weeks it really is going to need everybody to pull together.  No mistakes, No excuses.  We are ready.

Steve