**Match Thread** Tuesday, April 13th @21:15 in Wesley 2 - Boardeaux V Woodbine

_blank_

Anyone know who passed the ball for Collie's goal?

Going to try and keep a proper assists table this season.

homerjay2005

i think the only people that can tell us about the 1st goal are gav and anto!! i was feet away and it was difficult to tell whether it was over the line or not! it was defo going in, it was a super ball in form gav.

is gav claiming it?

assists, hmm, not sure, but am i right in saying -

gav
andy
jules
conor

in that order, maybe wrong on the 4th, but it came from the left. Keith mac was also about that side at the time.

TevezAnto

100% it was Anto!! Neck put on the line to ensure it crossed the line!

ChopperLambe

Great win lads dont get carried away but. A clean sheet as well and good rotation of a strong squad by the gaffer good fresh legs all the time. (EXCELLCENT).. Great cross by gav and anto did rob a touch on the line before it went over. good finish for all other goals . P.S colie give us a lend of your shooting boots.....;)

TevezAnto

Lads, Collie Murphy hitting balls like that.... this could be the season! Lets look forward to next game and continue the winning start..

FrankGrimes

TevezAnto wrote: »

Sure did get a touch onto it.... header actually!! Great start lads and really impressed with the system played by the Gaffer!

Good man Anto, that was an excellent finish so! Good to see new lads on the forum too.

Yeh, my memory is it might've been Conor who played the ball to Collie for his goal.

FrankGrimes

dfx- wrote: »

A very impressive performance from when you went 1-0 up and the terrific second goal broke their resistance, but I wouldn't have saw that scoreline before the first goal.

I wouldn't judge the new approach too soon. It bore fruit when in the lead no doubt. Last season however, the team started off as positive and conceded seven goals in 2 games which is an incredible handicap and a more defensive approach stabilised this I thought.
The core of previous seasons were on tight 1-0 wins with maybe just one late comeback from Ravenhill, they shouldn't be underestimated in a tough league. As said, that team won't be in the top five and you will be under much more pressure in other games and will require midfielders to defend and be away from the strikers. Then the system can be judged either way. When the goals are there, good...but Roy's Rovers and MDMA will be different games.

I'd agree with you on the scoreline flattering us a bit but disagree entirely on the view of the system - trying to play for a 1-0 instead of pushing on when in the lead has cost us a significant amount of points in previous seasons. But opinions are largely irrelevant: this is how the gaffer has instructed we play and he won't be overreacting by changing to a more defensive approach when we do concede one due to being pushed up. So our job is to go out and put those instructions into effect and I've no doubt whatsoever that at the end of the season we'll look back and say we gained more from it than we conceded. There's also the benefit that lads clearly enjoy playing that attacking game a lot more than sitting deep.

TevezAnto

Totally agree ! Crazy to sit back when the lead has been taken MUST push on for that 2nd and 3rd goal!

LeixlipRed

This league will be tight as **** so goals will count. We're already +4 better than every other team, let's keep it up.

keith MAC

Lads to add my thoughts (for its worth)

Good win, and a great start, if nothing else its gives us a greaty confidence boost to the season and i think that is the best thing we can say about last night. Also Collies goal was a bit special...

for me the night changed when we started to take the ball down and play football, and that started after we scored the first goal....from that moment on it was obvious that we were by far the better footballing team.

First have (from the sidelines) it looked like we had a big gap between defence/mid and attack. This put a huge a mount of presure on the centre of the park, to hold tackle and then try press with speed......which they did well!

the 3 lines (defenc, mid and upfront) were much closer together in the second half, and the team as a whole looked happier. the passing was sharp and neat and the other team couldnt get their foot on it! Really important we keep mid and upfront close....

I dont know anything about the other teams, or the other years...hopefully that doesnt matter as they will probably have had personnel changes....

good start, yes we need to play better, important thing is... it looks like we can!

The Volt

Thanks again to Jules for the lift home. Without trying to echo too much what's been repeated, the positives in the second half were there a-plenty.

Once we got our noses in front we never looked back. Don't know about the first half but when I came on I definitely felt there was plenty of communicating happening as well which is great. Upwards on onwards from here

homerjay2005

lads, ye all know i love playing in an attacking role. if all out attack suits, then yep, lets go for it. ill keep piling on as will the other lads, when the oppurtunity arises and theres a gap to exploit. its a great way to play football and out motto should be all out attack. but 2 things -

depends on the match and the amount of possession we have. last night, we played a not so great team and didnt have that much possession in the first half, as they piled forward and pinned us back. it was 5 on 4 alot of times. the first goal completly changed the game and it gave us confidence. they dropped their heads and the fact they had only 11, including 2 lads not short of 50 years old, means they lost their way and we did what we should have done is take full advantage. in the first half, we lost the ball alot, kept giving away silly frees (at least 6 inside our half). conclusion, we need to have the ball before we all push on. if the opposition has it more, then they naturally are going to have more pressing to do. its just a matter of who wants the ball more and who keeps possession when they do get it. but also, i am all for attacking and pushing up, but it needs to be done at the right times and not just for the sake of it. SS rovers next week will punish us if we break and dont get back.

and 2nd. theres a bit of a tendancy to point blame and drop heads when we lose a goal. if we are going gung ho, then this needs to change. last thing a keeper and a defence needs is the sideline and team mates lashing a back 5 when a soft goal goes in. last nite, they had one chance and it came from us losing possession. towards end of 1st half, there center back hoofed a ball over everybody about 50 yards down the pitch. martin was last man back and i was just ahead of him. they had 2 lads and one of them was hatching. luckily his shot was weak and clay saved, but it should have been scored. thats the risk we pose and jules has said before the amount of goals we concede from that suituation is small, but if we are having that mentalily, we need to accept that if we lose possession and are high up the pitch, we will lose goals. so instead of lads roaring at the defence, keep the mouths closed and get on with the game and accept the risks involved .



also, ref was well solid last night. we had a different lad also on monday and he reffed a friendly of ours, so 2 new refs in who look to be good refs. makes a change.

_blank_

Great to see the new lads on here, hopefully it keeps up

LeixlipRed

You're just chuffed everyone's calling you the gaffer :P Darlington job up for jobs again I reckon

Frisbee

homerjay2005 wrote: »

also, ref was well solid last night.

+1

Thought the ref was brilliant last. Tried to let the game flow and was talking constantly, whether it be to explain his decision or warn someone not do what they were about to do. Much better than ref's who just blow their whistle and point.

LeixlipRed

Yeh, relatively speaking he's an excellent ref, hopefully we'll have him a good few times this season.

_blank_

We've had him several times before, and I asked him was he reffing at Wesley Tuesdays on a regular basis, he said yes he was, that him and the guy who reffed on Pitch 1 last night are splitting the Tuesday Wesley games between them, one does two one week, the other does three and vice versa

He said the other guy is decent too.

FrankGrimes

LeixlipRed wrote: »

Yeh, relatively speaking he's an excellent ref, hopefully we'll have him a good few times this season.

Yes he was relatively good...and was definitely one of the better refs in this league. On the other hand, he didn't give me a single free for the at least 10 blatant pushes in the back (mostly 2 handed) I was getting everytime I was going up for a header with the man at my back. Their CH was clever enough knowing the ref was on the centre circle so couldn't see....but when a 14stone striker moves while in mid air, it ain't the wind that's blowing him.

Best bit was at the end when the ref pointed out the blood all down my jersey and asks how I got it and I just go 'remember those raised arms I was telling you about?'.....

helimachoptor

I thought he was decent also, but gave 2 free's against me purely due to the size of the guy i was competing with.

keith MAC

ref was excellent....no nonsense and missed very little.....well other than 10 fouls on Jules:rolleyes:...lets hope we see much more of him......


Its really interesting to see the discussion on high line up the pitch (push and attack) and low line (less aggressive line and more defending). I think we have equal number of people supporting either.

With our 4-4-2 formation - the 2 center forwards will really define the line. If we want to keep the team together (as we did in the second half, and yes i would agree with the guys about the extra space because the other teams heads were down) the team will need to keep close to the 2 CF's or there is a big gap in the middle of the park...so the line will in reality be determined by how far forward our 2 centre forwards play (obviously).....if we are under pressure maybe this is the area we could look to modify (if plan B is needed)

if not we have to stick someone in mid field right behind them to close the gap....


obviously at end of day Des aka "the Gaffer" will make decision.....


See you next Tuesday lads.....

dfx-

Very much agree with Ed.

It's not about settling for a 1-0 or sitting back, it's about knowing when to dig in and when to push on, all as a team. Last night in the second half was to push on, but that in itself isn't a validation of the style yet, particularly given the issues in the first half - the defence were overloaded and needed the midfield and forwards to come back as a tight, compact unit.

FrankGrimes

keith MAC wrote: »

ref was excellent....no nonsense and missed very little.....well other than 10 fouls on Jules:rolleyes:...lets hope we see much more of him......

Part of the reason for calling that out is so that our defenders know what this ref gives and doesn't give - we've given the opposition attackers too easy a time in the past and this ref is willing to let a bit of physical go - nothing wrong with that, we just need to give a bit more back. I appealed once and left it at that as he's an excellent ref by this league's standards and appealing further would just turn him against us.

keith MAC wrote: »

Its really interesting to see the discussion on high line up the pitch (push and attack) and low line (less aggressive line and more defending). I think we have equal number of people supporting either.

obviously at end of day Des aka "the Gaffer" will make decision.....

Agreed, while it's great that several players share their opinions (and we want more, not less of that), only thing that ultimately matters is the instructions the gaffer gives.

Background for the new lads is that this has been an age-old debate: I and several few others have continuously felt that we sit too deep and are more focused on worrying about what the opposition might do than making the opposition worry about us. As a result, there's been massive distance between strikers and midfielders at times and midfield have had a huge area to marshal: most common theme in match reports where we didn't do well was 'we got overrun in midfield'. Then when we do put our foot on it to play it out, we're doing so from too deep and it often broke down before getting near our strikers or the opposition half and strikers ended up feeding off scraps with little opportunity for centre-midfielders to directly link with strikers given the distance.

As that Albert fella once said, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over but expecting a different result. Likewise, I've always said that the strength in this team lies in our ability to play positive, attacking football, so we should play to those strengths. This doesn't mean we go gung-ho, and I absolutely agree with Ed and Daryl that you play the game in front of you and adapt accordingly - it's just about turning the balance towards a more positive approach where the situation calls for it. That's not intended to to re-open discussions on old ground (as the gaffer has clearly provided his instructions for this season anyway) - more wanted to share this as background context so that the new lads are aware of what has gone before.

Anyways, great that people care enough to have an opinion either way.

keith MAC

dfx- wrote: »

the defence were overloaded and needed the midfield and forwards to come back as a tight, compact unit.

good point and one we should keep in mind as the season unfolds.....