So the tried and trusted 3-5-2 setup that has served us so well in recent weeks was again deployed against the oldest of enemies: Langlebury CC. The game started with us defending against what felt like 20 players coming through the middle of us and putting our defence under extreme pressure. Mark in goal had to pull of a couple of excellent saves just to keep us at parity. In fairness his calm play and superb communication was the shining light of the first 20 minutes. I have to say our resident fireman in charge of the goal is having a great season. Earlier this season, I asked Mark to be more commanding of his goal and defenders, and what a difference it has made. It makes it so much easier for the defenders when we know we have his assurance and voice behind us. That said the sarcasm pills he took today were quite funny too! Having weathered 20 minutes of almost continual Langlebury pressure, I decided to switch back to 4-4-2 as our organisation just wasn’t there for some reason with the 5 in the centre. It worked almost instantly, and we started to win our headers and first balls. The goal we scored actually came form a com’s overload with Nolan heading clear despite a very load call from Mark. Even though it could have been a banana skin moment, at least both players called and were positive for the ball. The resulting passage of play found Alky who skinned his man and set of down the left hand side. Spotting the machine heading for the penalty area, his well weighted pass gave Dale an opportunity to score and he wasn’t found wanting. 0-1 and perhaps a tad fortunate as on balance we probably deserved to be behind. At half time Nolan spoke about a couple of basic principals that have been the cornerstone for Potten End: Winning the first ball and communication. Andy chipped in and roasted a few people for moaning, and i’m glad he did, as the second period resulted in none of it (Unless you count Greg screaming at me for the last 20 minutes - my ears are still ringing!!!). We started to move the ball around, and hold the ball up, Alky and Kieran coming much more into the game. It was no surprise that with the better passing and play we managed to get a goal with Diego providing a sweet assist for the machine to notch his second. 0-2 He could have very quickly completed his hat-trick had he decided to shoot and not attempt to repay the compliment to Diego. Good work today from our big spaniard, though not scoring he was involved in a lot of the play. Our third and indeed the treble for the machine again came from the boot of our one knee’d destroyer, his run up the wing and subsequent pass ensured the three points came home to Potten End. 0-3. A big thank you to Andy today who managed the substitutions for me. It is nice to have a pair of eyes on the sidelines to aid with the technical bits of the game. If you are all in agreement, I’d like to ask that when he is in attendance, we leave the substitutions to him on match days? Thanks Andy. Man of the match this week should really be heading towards our very tallest of bent coppers, however Mark in goal pips him with a sterling performance. Three great goals, and a cross bar from a header was an excellent return for a days work, but at important times during the game old flame hands had us covered. His talking, quality saves and distribution were all first class today. A faultless performance - take a bow son! Great clean sheet today fellas. Had to dig in at times, but 0-3 shows you what quality we have in the team and what we can do. Keep it Rotten.
