Another disappointing result yesterday losing 2-0 to younger & fitter side (barring old baldy head in the middle!)
The weeks up to this game have been a flurry of emails from Coach J describing the new formation that Carnage were to adopt for the rest of the season. For the first time in years we had a full squad itching to get onto the pitch to try out their new roles and the team was up for it.
From the push back it was clear that the new roles were going to take some time to get used to. Carnage dominated much of the ball in defence and midfield but we could not seem to get it across the opposition 22 let alone into the D.
When they got the ball the counter attacked with speed and for some reason old baldy head seemed to be in the open every time with space to pick his passes carefully. The defence held well though and when they slipped, Neil Stokes in goal was impenetrable. It was hot so the rolling subs were a blessed relief but still no breakthroughs with our only chance being a snapshot from Poppet which went narrowly past the post. Still, they were doing no better so with the score 0-0 at half time there was still everything to play for.
Some wise words from Coach and some positional changes had us back on and energized. Unfortunately this half had the Shaheen Umpire at our goal end and he took every opportunity to penalize even the slightest error with a short corner for them. They had a series of 3 of which they finally scored on the last one with a well worked routine. Carnage pressed on but again we struggled to get into scoring positions with our best chance coming from a 2 on one with Miles getting the ball wedged under his prone opponent to win a short corner of our own. Unfortunately it came to nothing and apart from a spectacular waist high deflection of a raised ball into the D their goalie was not troubled. In the meantime at the other end, another series of 3 or 4 short finally ended when they eventually managed to bundle in another goal.
Final score 2-0 although we were in it right to the end thanks to hard running and plenty of subs. Our defence is good and there were plenty of positives to be taken from yesterdays outing. Ultimately though we need to create more chances if we want to be successful in this league. We have training tonight to work on the new formation and a match on Sunday in the Valley against Recreio A who were relegated last year from Div 1.
I am away for the next 2 weeks so Posh has ‘volunteered’ to be captain on Sunday although he will need to hand off to another volunteer next week as he too will be out of the Country. It would be nice to come home to a couple of wins!
Go Carnage!