Summer Season Review - Next Season Preview

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Just to reflect on the Summer season lads.

I enjoyed the season.

A disastrous start, it has to be said, in our first three games we conceded sixteen goals, and scored only four. In two of those games we let in seven. It was shaping up to be a very bad season, and I genuinely felt that if it kept going the way it was, that we'd end up with no team.

We bounced back, and took two wins from games four and five, so seven points wasn't a bad haul from our first five games with what was basically half of the first season's team, plus new faces. Everyone getting to know each other's games all over again. With that run of two wins behind us, we went into game six with confidence. The opposition only has eight players starting off, and we thought we'd stroll it, so the complacency set in. When they got to full strength the outplayed us, and eventually put three past us. Lesson learned I hope lads.

The next three games after that I, and the rest of you, felt that we were very unlucky. We lost each by a single goal, but finished by far the stronger team in each of them, pressing the opposition into their own half, and creating chances.

But something else happened too lads. The drop off on numbers attending was shocking. We ended up having mates of mates out playing for us. That kind of shít does nothing for team spirit, and you only let down the rest of us. Anyway, what's done is done and we have all learned from it I hope.

After the three narrow losses, we went on to draw our next three games, again games we probably could, and should, have won. In fact in one of them we had a 3-0 lead at half time. Shocking. Although we had started to put some really nice attacking play to good use. Using the ball on the ground well. From the end of June right up until the end of the season, this aspect of our play got so much better. The defence was pretty solid most of the season, and we had started to cut out the silly goals of the early part of the season too.

After our three draws, and improving performances in the middle part of the season, we had high hopes of a good run to the end. However, we lost our next league game. A five one drubbing.

After that, we had our cup game. Fantastic it was. A severely depleted squad meant I had to stick an appeal on the soccer forum, Two of our lads from the previous season came to give us a dig out. Fair play lads. We played a team from a good few divisions above us and matched them all the way. Eventually winning through on Penalties. I'll never forget it anyway.

Our next two league games ended again in defeat, and again by one goal. The luck just wasn't with us.

Then in the next game it was all about sticking to the job, and working off scraps. We got the luck and won by a goal. It was the start of a decent run to the end of the season in which we beat two of the top three, and had a 5-1 win aswell.

In the Second round cup match we played another higher division team, and in truth they were a much better side, but we held on for a good long time, having led we drew 1-1 and ended up going out on penalties.

That team that played together from the cup game onwards, all of them ,is a winning team lads. It's the squad I believe can go places. We have a good solid keeper in Karl, great options in defence, all positions are covered in there, and I wouldn't feel like I was patching up the positions with any of the options I have at this stage.

Same goes for the midfield. If we need to shore it up, we have that option, if we feel we can take it to a team and outplay them in the middle and let the defence soak up the pressure we have plenty of attacking options too. Lads who are comfortable on the ball, able to spot a pass, and aren't afraid to take a man on. Building from the defence all the time, out to the wings, or through the middle.

It looks like we won't be sacrificing our main goal threats for the midfield either this season. We have lads now who have the eye for goal, both from the wing, the attacking midfield position or as strikers. The goals will come if we create the chances.

I'm very optimistic for the new season lads.

One thing though. It looks like we'll have a squad of 23 (Simon and Lepo will be back). That's it now, I won't be accepting anyone else onto the panel, it's full. With 23 on the squad, we should be aiming to have at the very least 17 or 18 lads out each match day. I don't want cold November nights where I'm struggling for numbers. That's ok in the Summer, people's mates will be willing to give a dig out if it's warm, but not if it's brass monkeys. We can push on this season lads, and win, or come pretty close to winning that division. I have no doubts about that.

I'll be giving everyone a physical copy of the fixture list, so you can go into work and work out what times you need to be at games at a fair few weeks in advance. Keep in your drawer in work.

Now, some stats from last season.

We played 18 games in the league.
We won five of them.
We drew four of them.
We lost nine of them.

Of the losses, four of them were by one goal.
That's eight games in which we drew or lost by one goal.

We conceded 43 goals. 28 of these were in the first half of the season 15 in the second half.
We scored 33 goals. 15 of these were in the first half of the season. 18 in the second half.

Take out those two games where we conceded seven goals.
We conceded 29 goals.
We scored 31.

Both cup games were drawn, and were against teams five and six divisions above us.

Inter Yeraulwan beat us twice 7-0 and 7-2. They won the league.
Glenwood Rovers Beat us 3-2, and we beat them 3-0. They finished second in the league.
Morriscastle Beat us 3-2, and we beat them 1-0. They finished third in the league.
Riverdeep Beat us 3-1 and 1-0. They finished fourth in the league.
Mellon Heads beat us 1-0, and we beat them 5-1. They finished fifth in the league.
Pigsback, we beat 3-0 and they beat us 2-1. They finished sixth in the league.
Fabulous B Monks we drew with 2-2 and 3-3. They finished eight in the league.
Inter yerauldone we drew with 2-2 and 1-1. They finished ninth in the league.
PH McCarthy we beat 4-2 and they beat us 5-1. They finished tenth in the league.

We beat two of the top three, outclassing Glenwood in our last game of the season.

If we can turn the defeats against the lower teams into wins, the draws into wins, and the one-nil losses into draws or one goal wins we won't be doing too badly.

One last thing.

This team badly needs a beer together.

Can we please make that happen this season. It's a requirement.












er......LONGEST POST EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!:D

LeixlipRed

Squad of 23? Will all of those be paying up? What are we gonna do with the extra cash? Tracksuits?? I second that idea. And third it too Really looking forward to this season. Still haven't lost (in regular time anyway) since I joined and I don't like losing. So let's keep the winning run going and win this league. also, anybody who's not up for it in the bad weather is a pussy and you'll get no end of grief from me if that's an excuse for not coming

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LeixlipRed wrote:

Squad of 23? Will all of those be paying up? What are we gonna do with the extra cash? Tracksuits?? I second that idea. And third it too

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=53862353&postcount=45

LeixlipRed

I posted that before I'd read the other thread. I still think tracksuits is a better idea. And bumper stickers

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You posted in the other thread after I posted the money plans in that thread.

Weirdo.

LeixlipRed

Yeh except you edited the post after I had already begun reading it, hence I missed all that

Savman

Interesting stats. Just on the issue of training, its a real pain in the tits not knowing until the last minute if something is being organised or not. If we're gonna train, at least set a day or night of the week and stick to that every week without fail.

Thurs & Sat bad for me from next month onwards, but other than that I'll do me best to make a regular session. Organising it at a few days notice just gives folks an easy excuse to say no. Just a thought.

thelepo

Hello lads,
Mr.Lepo stopping in after a summer hiatus going after the CIA and other such activity.

I'll pay my dues when I get back if there is still space on the team. Mikey still playing at left back or is someone new in that role?

I've been training with a group called 'D.C. Tsunami', cracking team I'm sure you've all gathered, though better than the 'D.C. strikers' I played with last year.

Looking forward to a decent game of football on a nice pitch with actual goals.

Lepo

homerjay2005

ya, interesting when the stats are digested. so look at it from the defensive point of things first. we conceded 43 goals. 22 of those came in the 4 games that we lost by more than 1 goal. Inthe other 13 games, we only conceded 21 goals, not bad when you consider that.

we lost 4 games by 1 goal and drew 4 more. I genuinly believe that we should have won at least 4 of those, so that is an extra 8 points or so. add in the 5 games we won and it was a very healthy season. defending goes down to all 11 players on the field, not just the keeper an defense. i think every single one of us made a mistake for a goal this season, but this things happen.
we have 6 players that are comfortable playing in defence and i think that is a good number. the second round of games showed us that we can concede very little and indeed, bar 1 freak goal, we would have ended the season with 3 clean sheets. my aim for the next season is set a target of no more that 20 goals conceded. its a tough target, f**k it, we will probably concede more but im confident it can be done.no more that 30 though, thats for sure. we need a solid base.

so that brings me to midfield. hmmm, that is where we saw virtually everybody play. we have lots of options. we definately need one attacking and one defending player in the middle and then 2 wingers who will run their bollix off all day. i think we have those players.

Goalscoring.....33 goals, its not bad, so lets set a target of 40 this year??
and how about this des? we all throw in say 3 each with the top goal scorer AND top assist players getting 30 or 40 quid each at the end of the season??

that should give somebody that extra bit of drive. we created lots of chances last season. our finishing let us down at times, but we still scored a few great goals, alot of great team goals also. some players need to shoot more, others need to pick the right option, but thats always going to be the case in every team.

so overall, i was very pleased with the season. we lacked numbers at times, but with alot of things happening during the summer, people are distracted and loose interest. the winter, their is very little happening, so numbers should not be an issue. we need to have at least 16 for every game, create good competition. everybody should aim to miss no more than 4 games over the course of the season. indeed, i think shay played 19 of the 20 games. good commitment.

last thing, WE ARE GOING TO LOOSE GAMES, WE ARE GOING TO HAVE ROWS WITH EACH OTHER, WE ARE GOING TO HAVE BAD NIGHTS WHERE WE LOOSE BADLY, BUT........
. The team that won the league, lost 5 games last season. we lost 9, so if we are to improve, we should set a target of no more than 5 defeats. anything less that 9 shows signs of improvment. remember, this team is only together a year now, with most of the team only joining in the last few months, so even small progress, is a step in the right direction....now, sorry for boring ye, im finished

good stuff des by the way in setting this up.

FrankGrimes

Great thread. First off - big thanks to Des for all his work and committment in managing the team. It's easy to overlook what goes on behind the scenes lads, but don't take it for granted: from dedicating his time for the matches, handling logistics like funds, buying gear etc, dealing with an ever changing squad and poor turnout and dealing with some backchat and unhappy players, I think he deserves thanks from each player. Without Des the team would've either fallen apart or just not have progressed as far as it's come.

Good season, terrible start though we improved dramatically as it went on and the stats provided above are very interesting. Looking at the squad list we have for next season I'm very confident that we have plenty of options and talent to win this league. And that should be our target for the year - nothing short of a league title will do. We should also ban the words 'should have' next season.:D

Good point on the training - its the one key element that we don't have right now that we need if we're to be a proper football team. I say we just block book a 5-a-side pitch (preferrably not one that kills the shins like DCU) on a Sat/Sun afternoon. If we can't get 10 lads out between our 23 and mates each week, something is seriously wrong. If we get bigger numbers we'll then worry about changing venue, but this would be a good way to get into a positive practice. And Des doesn't necessarily need to attend each session if he's busy elsewhere - even just a regular kickabout with teammates will improve all players. We can throw in technique and tactics drills after we establish this as a regular weekly session.

Every player has been clearly told the committment that is expected before signing up for this season, so there should be no confusion and no surprise if people that go down with mysterious injuries at convenient times are given no sympathy. Unless you're seriously incapacitated, its reasonable to expect an injured player to show up to support his teammates. This is a basic requirement for any proper team so don't be expecting sympathy if you drop out with a late injury but then don't show up for the match. If you show up it shows committment and removes any doubts.

That said, we've a much stronger squad in-depth - better players are more likely to show up to get to show what they can do, but on the other hand good players are more likely to get frustrated at not being in the starting 11. The manager will be picking his best 11 and not one player is guaranteed a spot, so if you're not in it you're expected to fight for your place (this is another reason training is so important as it gives players a chance to play their way back in).

This will be my 15th season of competitive football, and I've been round the block enough times to know we're going to run into problems with either dropping turnouts or unhappiness from players not getting games if turnout stays high. All we can do is set clear expectations of what's required and hope everyone is committed. On the plus side, playing with such an improved squad will raise the standard of every individual's game and make us a much better team - that competition for places really does push everyone to the next level and everyone that sticks through this season should be expecting to be holding a league trophy at the end of it.

homerjay2005 wrote:

we all throw in say 3 each with the top goal scorer AND top assist players getting 30 or 40 quid each at the end of the season??

I appreciate the aim of this, but I'm 100% against this - as I said, I've been involved in enough teams and have seen several variations of this tried to know this causes more harm than good. The essence of this boards team is that we play for each other and its not about any one individual getting the glory. Having an incentive to be the one to score or make the final pass lads tend to start taking greedy shots or attempting killer passes where a simple ball may setup a teammate to make a simpler final pass. .....you'd end up with crazy situations like centre halves shooting from free-kicks 50 yards out (almost goal of the season right there Ed)

homerjay2005

FrankGrimes wrote:

I appreciate the aim of this, but I'm 100% against this - .....you'd end up with crazy situations like centre halves shooting from free-kicks 50 yards out (almost goal of the season right there Ed)

ha ha, ya fair enough,twas just a suggestion,i know where your coming from,but that is why i brought in the assist idea also.

as for the said free kick,that was a hit and hope more than anything else,we were 5-1 up at the time,des said to go for it. though,im going to try it once or twice if mr feeney gives the go ahead from the sideline sometime! BTW,what was our goal of the season last year? we scored a few great team goals i seem to remember.....