***Match Thread*** Tues 18/1 19:15 Wes2 -vs- Fabulous Benedictine Monks

In

Lads, the most important thing I want to say is: I'm proud to be a part of this team.

The main reason for that is we're a proper team: everyone plays for the team, supports each other, provides constructive observations to work on and everyone works hard for the team. To create a squad of 16 lads all with those objectives in mind is a fine achievement in itself, but it gives us an opportunity to really push on from here.

Our second goal is a great example: on most teams, a lad in Conor's position would have been picturing his name in lights, but Conor laid it off for a well-taken tap in for Anto. As I said recently at the match and on here: great things can happen when noone cares who gets the credit. The name on the trophy we're striving for will say Boardeaux (even if we have to engrave it ourselves ).

3 clean sheets in a row thanks to some great saves by Clay and some really purposeful defending. At 2-0 up they had a goalmouth scramble that was cleared when goalbound no less than 4 times: that showed the spirit and desire of this team. We went straight down the pitch to score the 3rd from those saves.

We weren't quite clicking first half, but were trying all the right things, but we were patient with each other and kept faith in our approach. It was a bit of a miracle we didn't score in the first 15mins of the 2nd half as we were really putting them under siege. I put the hand up to come off for last 15 as I was short on energy due to not having eaten: in this squad when you look to the bench you see quality so you know in a situation like that, the right thing for the team is to step off. And two quality finishes by Anto just demonstrates that and I was struck by how enjoyable it is to watch our team play our style of football. This team can thrive a few levels up, no doubt about it.

Let's stop all talk of the title: for us to be in this position and be defining success based on whether we finish 1st or 2nd would be aiming too low. Let's not define success based on how we do relative to the other teams: let's set our own standards for ourselves. That involves shooting for every available point, and settling for no less than 15 of the 18 points remaining. You tell me why we can't do that if we focus on playing to our full potential.