*** Match Thread*** Tue May 26th Colmcilles 7pm Sporting Dundrum

Mousewar

Never played them before. 3 points essential to kickstart the season properly.


Al- In
Calvin- In
Cathal - In
Cillian - In
Craig - In
Damo - In
Dave - Out
Derek - out
Ed
Jack - Out
Keith - In
Ken - Out
Kieran - In
Mark - In
Sam - In
SteK - inj
SteMcd - In
Adam - In
Paul - In
Ayoub - In

Paulmee

Paul - In

Mousewar

Ste - you in or out??

mrDerek

He's in don't let the pox give ya any excuses he's not injured

Mousewar

1-1
Really poor result for us and poor performance. I'm not going to say anything more than that at the moment. It'd be nice to hear from as many of you as possible. Maybe get a bit of discussion going. Let's just keep it constructive.

And sorry, I had to go off. Rolled my ankle - I wanted to come back in but there was nothing I could do.

helimachoptor

yeah, lethargic first half and start of the second.

I agree fitness isnt great but also too often the man gets by a player and hes let run.

We only put it up to them in the last 15 and then took it up a gear when they scored.

their "goal" wasnt in, i was on the line and it was on my knee

kmcattack

I actually don't think fitness is our problem. I don't think we are being dominated by teams due to fitness and inability to track runners.

It seems to be more down to general game management and sense, we're panicking and rushing on the ball at times and losing it in key positions and getting caught on the break. I can't remember how many times they had extra men coming through at us last night and we would have been punished by a better side.

Particularly at times in the second half, we seemed to go all out for a goal and were pushing really high up the pitch and then we got caught out on the break as a result. I think we'd be better off being a bit more patient and stringing a few passes together and stretching the opposition using the ball rather than pushing everyone forward before we even have control of the ball.

It was only in the last few minutes that we started to get the ball out wide a bit more and looked a lot more dangerous as a result.

AdMMM

Fitness is definitely an issue, but when you look at the teams that we've been playing, it's most definitely an issue for them too! My own fitness is there again, I just had a calf issue when I came on, simply down to not being properly warmed up.

We controlled the game for much of the first half, but we never looked like scoring. From the sideline we looked very static and it was easy for them to defend against. At this level, it should only take some smart running to force and inexperienced defence to hesitate and create some space for us, but there wasn't much of this for most of the game.

dfx-

I don't think it's fitness at all, in general, boards have been in control or the more likely team to score - it's not like yous are hanging on for a draw or losing stupid goals due to mistakes or lack of cover.

Last night from what I saw they scored with their first chance of any kind after boards had missed an open goal from two yards. Equally, boards equalised directly after they thought they went 2-0 up. If you're chasing the game, there will be gaps at the back especially late on irrespective of fitness.

I think the final ball is a little short or perhaps clinical finishing, decision making around the box maybe. There were plenty of shots last night too which was missing in other games.

Mousewar

Nice to see a bit of discussion anyway.

Personally, I tend to agree that fitness isn't the major issue right now. We've played a few teams and I don't think any of them demonstrated any great fitness beyond ours. However, they often did demonstrate better composure on the ball and better all-round ball retention. If we keep giving the ball away we're going to be doing more running to get it back and hence we're gonna look a lot more tired.

One plus is that defensively we've doing okay. We've always conceded a goal or two in Colmcilles but we won matches by scoring three or four. So defensively we're the same team, it's just offensively that we're struggling - we're just not scoring. And that is evident in our difficulty stringing passes together in the opposition half. We have a match in Benildus next week - it's a big pitch that will allow us a little bit more time and space to put a few of those passes together. We're up against a top team but let's use it as an opportunity to get ourselves playing the right way again - putting proper passes together and creating opportunities.