A disappointing result from our first game of the season, culminating in 2-2 draw. We had a strong team out even though we had numerous suspensions and absences but just couldn’t get the winner. To their credit Sheldon turned up to play their game without being intimidated by our history of wins against them.
We started off well passing the ball around and keeping our discipline without really creating more than a few half chances. Then suddenly, against the run of play, Sheldon managed to break out of defence. They moved the ball to the right wing, where a back heel flick managed to find its way to the corner of our penalty area and the Sheldon centre forward managed to score with a speculative cross shot.
Unperturbed by this setback we continued to press forward with our passing game and it soon paid dividends. Some slick passing allowed us to move the ball to Chris who put the ball in the box for Damian to finish.
Normally this would have seen us begin to exert our dominance over the opposition but for some unknown reason we just couldn’t click into overdrive. We were in control of the game but we couldn’t get our noses in front and in fact went behind again. Roger called to make a clearance just inside our half but didn’t anticipate the speed and determination of the Sheldon player who nicked the ball from off his toe and ran though to finish despite Jimbo in goal cutting down his angle.
Once again we were chasing the game and once again we managed to conjure up an equaliser with a slick passing movement. Once again patient passing resulted in Laurie putting Pablo into space on the left side of the Sheldon penalty area and with a swish of his right foot we were level.
This is how the game ended but that wasn’t the whole story. We were totally dominant in the second half but we didn’t create a whole host of chances. Of the chances we did create we weren’t clinical in our finishing. Sheldon were happy with defending what they had, I’m not sure they have ever taken any points off us before and, if they had, it wouldn’t have been many!!!
It would be wrong to point the finger of blame at any one player as it takes more than one to win or lose a game. What I will say though is we cannot expect to win games without doing the basics properly. It seem liked we expected to win without the opposition putting up a fight. We didn’t want to tackle or track runners, preferring to leave the job to someone else. If you give players time in this league you are likely to get punished because it’s not only our team that have good players who can do damage. We also have to become killers in front of goals. There are too many forwards in this squad for those in possession of a starting shirt to think they don’t have to take their chances when they are presented. We had Jason and Leon H on the bench whilst Che and Obi were suspended. If you don’t shoot you don’t score. If you don’t score you could find yourself with a stint on the bench, or worse out of the squad. It’s not enough to score one goal because if you are a forward in a Clarendon team the odds are you are probably going to get 3-4 chances and that is not a great conversion rate!!!
If you are a midfielder you are not only in the team to support the forwards but also to protect the defence. We had Richard and Leon T on the bench with Woody suspended – don’t take your position for granted.
If you are a defender you are there to protect your goal and organise the defence in front of the goal. For the first time in a while we have options to cover every defender, don’t take your position for granted because Daley is waiting for his spot after his suspension is finished.
It is not enough to think you can get away with what you have done previously. The opposition will raise their game we need to do the same and the way that we can begin that process is by setting a firm foundation – that means respecting the opposition and working hard enough to get the basics right.Clarendon
