Mid Season Review.

homerjay2005

seen as we are now half way through the season, i think its time to have a look at how we are doing. first off, i will compare who we have been doing compared to this stage over the past 2 seasons.....as you can see, we have may big strides and improvements.



This season - 15 points, goals for - 21, against - 15 (current position 4th)
Last Season - 8 points, goals for - 16, against - 28 (final position 7th)
1st Season - 7 points, goals for - 12, against - 25 (final position 10th)


our aim was to win this league, we are 9 points off first place, the top 2 teams still have to play each other 2 times, so they both will drop points there. however, we should be alot closer, we have dropped 7 points that we should have picked up, with a little bit of luck, we could have got these -



Week 1 Mon 17 Sept 19:30 3RRB -v- Fred West Ham (1-2) - i think this was a fair result, they were that little bit better than us.

Week 2 Mon 24 Sept 19:30 3RRB -v- IFG United (2-0) - played poor, but deserved the win.

Week 4 Tue 9 Oct 21:00 3RRB -v- Ravenhill (2-0) - got 2 early goals and closed out the game, they offered little.

Week 5 Tue 16 Oct 21:00 3RRB -v- IBM DSL FC (0-1) - should have won this game, no questions, conceded a last minute goal to loose it after owning the ball. 3 points dropped!

Week 7 Tue 30 Oct 21:00 NEW -v- Dunbar Pensioners (1-3) - scoreline does not reflect the game, ok, they are good, but we hit the crossbar at 2-1 and we dominated the whole second half. they scored in the last minute to seal it. 1 point dropped.

Week 8 Mon 5 Nov 19:30 3RRB -v- Eddie Rockets (5-1) - nothing to say about this really.

Week 9 Mon 12 Nov 19:30 3RRB -v- SS Rovers (3-4) - a case of 3 points dropped if i ever saw one. we were 3-1 up and conceded a goal with 2 minutes left. still, we fell asleep and only have ourselves to blame, we didnt get stuck in the 2nd half. 3 points dropped, no question.

Week 10 Tue 20 Nov 21:00 NEW -v- Fred West Ham (4-2) - excellent display, deserved win, could/should have been 6-1 to be honest, ref gave them a goal at the end and we had alot of chances.

Week 11 Mon 26 Nov 19:30 3RRB -v- IFG United (3-2) - late win, but totally deserved.


defensively, we have improved no end, my aim at the start was to halve the goals we conceded last season, so far we are more or less on target (28 down to 15). however, im disappointed with the last 3 or 4 games, we have conceded a few silly goals, down to both mistakes and ref errors. so, we need to cut these out, in the last 9 games, i think we should aim for conceding no more than 10 goals. we had the second best defence in the league up to 4 games ago, but we have had to make a few changes to allow for inuries/players missing in midfield. but overall, defensively has been a success. attack wise,we have been scoring more lately and this is good, lets keep this up. there is a good spread in the team as regards scoring and i think, we are the second best record in the league. its hard to judge at the moment as some teams have played more games than the others, but next week should even out and give us an idea of how we are doing as regards goals scored and conceded.

i think the standard of this league is higher, going on the basis that the 2 teams on top, have 24 points already, where as last season, the 2 teams that finished top, had 33 at the end. so, at this stage last season, we would only have been 2 or 3 points off first place, had we had 15 points. so, it looks like the team that wins it this year, will need to hit about 42 points at least. we can end up on 42, but would need to win all our games. something that can be done, but unlikely i think. our aim should be around the 35/37 mark(the laws of averages say we will finish on at least 30 i suppose!). that would be a considerable improvemnt on last season. if we had said that at the start of the year, we could finish on 35 points, then we would have said that we would win the league. to improve further, i think we need to become a bit more agressive, like we were against fred west 2 weeks ago and show teams that we can get stuck in. we are going to give away frees anyway, so why not make them earn the frees.

thoughts please?!

LeixlipRed

The only thing I'd say is that I think we've been very poor at the back the last few weeks. If you look at the run in last season we conceded one goal in 6 or something like that. Against decent opposition too. All the chopping and changing back there has meant we're leaking goals all over the place at the moment. Cant be helped with the injuries I suppose

Savman

Fair point about the leaking goals recently, but I think we got to a point where we had to "speculate to accumulate" (C) John Giles 2007
We were decent at the back but were'nt doing the biz going forward, now that's almost reversed for some reason. I think that about sums up our season so far, still finding our feet and not sure what our best system is.

Our own inconsistency has cost us this season and in most games we've beaten ourselves by not doing simple and basic things.

Week 5 Tue 16 Oct 21:00 3RRB -v- IBM DSL FC (0-1) - should have won this game, no questions, conceded a last minute goal to loose it after owning the ball. 3 points dropped!

By far our worst result in a long long time, but that's what happens when you fail to deal with a simple throw-in. They pretty much bungled the ball over the line, but before that it was heading for 0-0 which doesn't exactly flatter us either.

Week 11 Mon 26 Nov 19:30 3RRB -v- IFG United (3-2) - late win, but totally deserved.

Here's where I'd probably disagree with ye chief. To any neutral watching that game, we stole that result and if we're honest with ourselves, we didnt get going like we did the week before against FWH. I know we hit the bar etc etc, but it just seemed like we were huffing and puffing with no real rhythm or flow. The first half was so flat we couldn't string a 5 yard pass together. What I'm basically saying here, is that we won't get away with that kind of display again, remember they still came from behind twice, granted by whatever means necessary.

We've conceded 13 goals in the last 6 games so that's defo an area of concern IMHO. I wouldn't be quick to point the finger at Defence either, because individual errors aside most goals are started further up the pitch from a sloppy pass or throw in or whatever.

We wont get back going again unless everyone realises we have to up the overall level. We've been threatening to be a good team, but time running out for us to show it. Yet even with the lucky breaks and patchy results, we still sit 4th only 1pt behind 3rd place.

All still to play for me thinks.

_blank_

OK, this could be a long post, so bear with me if it is. Er, ok, it is long. If there's any smelling mistakes, feck yiz, it's too long to review.

I don't normally post on the Post-Game threads.

Would you like me to start doing that? Or are yiz happy enough?

I don't like to come straight home and post straight away, I like to have a think about things.

I'm delighted with this season so far lads, and the progress we've made.

Since starting this team over a year ago I've watched it grow from a bunch of strangers (which is exactly what it was, simply, we'd never met each other before) trying to get to grips with each other's strengths and weaknesses, getting to know each others games, trying to get lads who were fully committed to the team, trying to basically build a team.

I'm not going to be singling any individuals out for criticism, or praise, on this forum. That wouldn't be fair.

Team spirit was never really a cause for concern, we all wanted it to succeed.

And I think it has.

We are a team now, and that shows in our never say die attitude which was coming at the end of last season, and has continued. There has only been one blip on this so far, and that was out first game this season. We never showed up, and got beat because of it. That gave us a kick up the arse for sure. So did the game we lost 4-3 having been 3-1 up. We learned a lesson form that, and went and beat FWH, unbeaten in the league all season. That was my proudest moment as manager of this team, because, to be fair to the cup games last season, most of the lads who played in those games weren't part of the "team". This game against FWH was a proper "Boardeaux" effort. No-one was a mate of a mate giving us a dig-out.

The defence is doing well, and I think we have seven lads there who can do a job against the teams in this league. Fair enough, injuries in the past few weeks have maybe hampered that a bit, and some of the lads have had to get used to new partners, get used to a different type of game, but it still working. We have conceded less than we have scored, and our league position relects this. Well done lads, keep it solid for the rest of the year, just keep playing the same game and I've no doubt we'll continue as we've started.

To midfield. I've been tinkering with this all season, trying to find our best options in there.

It's pretty much been chop and change all season, but mostly the lads have been doing the jobs asked of them. Sometimes the CMs need to be more defensive minded, and this can frustrate the forwards, and sometimes the CMs can have licence to go forward, and this can frustrate the defenders.

I make the calls as I see it lads, along with help from calling from the pitch, but at the end of the day, if the opposition is offering little or nothing going forward, I think it's better to allow the CMs to try and do some damage further up the field and let the more than adequate defence deal with the opposition forwards. Similarly, if we are under pressure at the back, I'd prefer we keep it solid and try to hit them on the break, than commit too many men up the field and be left with holes at the back, which leads me on nicely to my next point.

The wingers.

We have four or five lads who I know I'd have no problem with starting. Also, I think the other players feel this too, and know each of the wingers game, if not inside out, then very well. Because of this, I like to rotate the wingers as much as possible, to keep them fresh. This has been working very well this season. Even with just three of the lads at a match, it allows me to mix it up. The fresh legs are worth so much against the other teams in this league. Especially if they come with only 12 or 13 lads.

Now on to the forwards. They seem to be starting to click. It's always the hardest position to get used to, because you might get twenty minutes and not get a kick, or be on for five and get a goal. We have a good mix of players for the position, and I think I know what most of them can do, what qualities they bring for us, how we can use them, at what times of a game they are most effective.

We were having a bit of trouble with creating and taking chances early on, but that is turning now, as the strikers are getting the service they need. Not only that though. I think the strikers have adapted somewhat to the games our midfield and even defenders play, which means they can get into the positions that they now know to be in to capitalise on the very good build up play.

There's a good spread of goals throughout the team, which is good, we aren't relying on any one player for goals.

I said I wouldn't be singling anyone out, but it's a bit hard to talk about the goalkeeper and not do that. So, Karl gives the lads in front of him great confidence, and he does a decent job of getting the ball away from corners and that. I think the lads trust him, and I certainly do. He is one of the main reasons we haven't been conceding many goals.

All in all lads, we're doing well, and as Ed pointed out earlier, our stats are encouraging.

Again, we started out with the belief that we could win the league, indeed we beat the team that were unbeaten and top with maximum points. There is no team to fear in this league, once we keep the same attitude up for every game we have left, then we can certainly more than double our points tally so far.

I'd be happy with a third place finish, but if we can push our hardest, and maybe another one or two results go our way, then second is still a possibility. I haven't given up on that at all.

As a team, I think we have really gotten the backchat to the referees well under control, and I think that has had an affect on results too. A very important one. I think it showed the opposition teams that they had us rattled sometimes. Certainly, I like to hear them having a moan at the ref. It means we are frustrating them, they don't like it that we are making the luck.

Now lads, you all know you can talk to me, email me, ring me, PM me, whatever, I'm always happy to listen to whatever ideas you might have. I'm not Arsene Wenger or even Pat Fenlon, and yeah, I'll probably make a few more mistakes along the way. But I think I'm learning. The main thing I think I've gotten to grips with is the rolling subs thing.

If you think Player X could do a job in a different position, then don't be afraid to tell me, I take all ideas on board. Some of you already do that, SOME of you email me ten times before every game But seriously, all ideas are well received.

I might post more tomorrow.