Yesterday’s outing against 144 U ended in disappointment with a 2-1 defeat. There were however some highlights to take the edge off the bitter pill of defeat. Carnage exploded out of the blocks and totally dominated the first half but unfortunately our forwards could not get on the end of the pass to finish the moves. The total domination also resulted in a large number of short corners but as our routine was missing all of our usual strikers we ended up with a below par return of 1 from 8. The one goal we did get was scrappy as the keeper saved the first shot but Mofo was on hand to calmly lift the rebound over the log and into the side netting. Carnage heads were up and a flood of goals were expected….. but it didn’t happen.
The second half was the polar opposite of the first. Our passes were telegraphed and easily intercepted, our attacking screen leaked like the Titanic and wave after wave of green shirts trundled through. When we did have the ball, our leads were non-existent and the ball carrier was invariably smothered as he had no-one to pass to. Their equalizer came from a short that was awarded for no particular reason but they took it well. Once they were on par their energy levels doubled while ours disappeared completely. The fitness levels were starting to show. Despite being a die-hard one-eyed Valley addict I had to admire their second goal as they calmly followed Coach Jeremy’s half time talk to the letter. Man waiting on the base line and then push it back across the D to the advancing forwards. A simple goal that was well executed. We shall see what Teamer has to say once all your votes are in but I would like to make a special mention of Lester who had a great game in an unfamiliar position out on the right wing. He ran hard for the whole match and hassled and fought for everything. Well done Lester!
We have no game this weekend so we have two training sessions to fix some of the structural issues that were causing us problems in the second half. This Tuesday 27th from 8.30-10 and next Wed 5th from 9-10. I also encourage all of you to get out into the hills or into the Gym or pool or bike or whatever it takes to work on your fitness. 35 minutes of effort is not good enough to win matches. We need to be able to run for the full 70 minutes.