***Match Thread*** Tue 3/4 20:15 WES2 -vs- Redmen Revival

I'm in

Ah you weren't the only Keith, several of us were way below our usual standard, I hold my hand up and acknowledge I was one of those. I found it very hard to control the ball in those conditions, not sure why but it seemed the hailstones/frost made it bounce different and more slippery than in normal rain. So it just wasn't sticking up front like it should have.

Though much of our lack of fluency was due to the conditions, Gav is right when he says too often we took the wrong option in midfield and upfront, we need to take the simple ball more often (e.g. several times chips over fullbacks heads from 10 yards for a winger to run onto were attempted when there were people available central for a simple switch). There were a few times we could've gotten a shot away but instead played it back out to be crossed in.

But the lesson is to think about how we respond in those frustrating circumstances - when someone messes up it's sometimes human nature to go 'ah ffs' but we need to get into the habit of biting our tongue and asking ourselves is our response more likely to encourage that player to do better next time or is it just lashing out at him which will put more pressure on him next time. That's the encouragement and patience point Collie and I were making before and after - easier said than done, and I got frustrated myself, but it is something for us to focus on getting right early in the season.

Keith's dead right though, both their goals were due to really poor defending from set pieces, we need to take more control of our penalty area.

That said, for the few times we played our usual stuff, we were actually quite incisive and had 4 decent chances in the last 10 to win it, so despite the above we weren't far off getting the 3 points, and at least it wasn't a loss, but much better is needed from all of us next week.