1st XI v Minchendenians – LOB Cup (Away) 06/03/2010
Lost 5-0
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It was one of those days where you just have to hold your hands up and say we were well beaten. In the end, the score line probably reflected the balance of play so with our exit from our final cup competition, it’s now a matter of eating into our league backlog.
With the emails and phone lines buzzing all week with sides being rejigged to cater for injuries and players missing due to the stag weekend, all sides agreed to stick to the bare eleven. Not ideal when facing the Premier League pace setters so it was thanks therefore to Sam Ward who late on Friday afternoon agreed to come along as sub. Pulling together 4 sides was a good effort all round and obviously a lot tougher for the other captains than it was for the first team.
Anyhow, Matt had been itching to move forward into midfield all season and today was his chance when he partnered Steve Franklin in the middle. Tony Brady came in at centre back with Liam O’ Grady slotting in at right back. Tom Cahill took a break from weekend work and joined Brendan up front.
On a massive pitch, both sides started quite brightly. Renaldo brought an early save out of the Minch keeper with a long-range effort but chances were generally few and far between. Minch had a decent half chance from a corner when the ball flew across our goal line with their forward only able to scoop his header over the bar. Minch had more of the possession but attempts on goal were generally from distance and Martin was relatively untroubled.
Our changed line-up seemed to be headed for a goalless first half when with 30 seconds to go we needlessly gave the ball away and as has been the norm this season, we duly got punished when the Minch centre forward scored with a low drive from just outside the box. It always seems worse when you concede right on the stroke of half time!
However as Tony Brady rightly pointed out during the half time chat, the 1st XI seem to have fallen behind in most games so all the right things were said about getting back into the game, keeping the ball, working hard etc.
However, today, all the talk was to no avail and our ability and ‘luck’ to keep coming back from a deficit, well and truly ran out – big time! 15 mins into the half with the game still fairly even, a free kick was floated into our box, finding a Minch forward completely unmarked to head home their second goal. For the last 30 mins of the half we were given a lesson in how to play football the right way. Minch are a strong enough side as it is even without being gifted a couple of goals and today an Ignatian comeback never looked likely.
Goals 3, 4 and 5 soon followed giving Minch a win they fully deserved. Today we had to take our medicine and will hopefully learn a few lessons at the same time. Losing 5-0 is not a good feeling and something we don’t want to be on the back of again.
It was one of those games where although I’m sure all the side were trying hard, we seemed off the pace all round, didn’t get close enough to the key Minch players and just could not keep hold of the ball for any length of time at all.
Anyhow, it’s how we react now that’s important and if we want to be playing teams like Minch on a regular basis, we need to put this game behind us asap - but at the same time, remember what it feels like to get well beaten!
Back to the league program next week and the games will now come thick and fast, with
mid-week games and even double-headers more than likely this year.
Our main target this season is still there for us to play for so it’s time for us all to regroup, come back stronger next week and start picking up some points in the league.
Finally, the team should heed Steve Franklin’s advice after the game about needing to do more fitness work than just the Tuesday training session. It’s clear that some of the team should be fitter and over the next few weeks it will be important to show that Steve’s advice has been taken.
MOM- Dan Bailey
Dave O’ G
