Let me start with a great big thank you to Coughlan General Insurance Bureau for their wonderful gift of training and match day jackets for the boys. With winter moving in fast, the boys need to keep ward at both training and before matches and it is good to see them all in matching kit. It makes them look like a proper team.
As soon as I have a picture I will have this loaded up to the site. If anyone has one can you please mail it to me?
Now let’s get down to business. I am sure you will all agree that the first 25 minutes of last Saturday’s game was very entertaining and we witnessed some wonderful football, however we just could not find the end product. Oh what a difference a week can make. The football the boys played from the very first whistle was just sublime. Every move had four of five passes and we looked so dangerous and the work rate to go get the ball back was first class. The whole team worked as a unit to get the ball back and on the very few occasions that they did manage to get shots away, Louis was on top form getting his body into the right position which is in between him and the goal and his handling the distribution was perfect. I especially liked the fact that we are rolling the ball out to defenders or midfielders who are finding space and then turning and looking immediately for a pass to a forward player. We also had plenty of players getting up and down the pitch supporting both the forward and defence.
It was also good to see us attacking corners. I was a bit concerned at the end of the first half. It was 1-0 and they had three or four corners in a row, but the boys kept close to our markers and dealt firmly with everything. On attacking corners it was good to see the boys try and use them to our advantage for a change. I still have no idea how the goalie managed to keep Owens shot out. I was standing right behind it and it looked a goal all the way.
What I also liked was seeing so many different scorers this week. Well done to Ollie for getting his hat trick and an excellent MOM performance, but it was also good to see everyone getting forward and finishing beautifully. Of course seeing Scott score is always going to be the biggest rush for me as he is my son, but apart from that the best goal for me was Alfie’s. He has been superb the past couple of weeks for the team and when he had the earlier chance that just went wide I thought he had a goal in him. The run he then made and the perfect ball through to him was just fantastic.
All of the boys should be really proud of their performance this week and should be thoroughly looking forward to this week’s game against Roman Rangers. We had a great game against them 12 months ago and I am expecting another cracker.
