***MatchThread*** 12th Aug 20:00 Benil FB Monks

Lovely Bloke

LAst game of the season!

Cathal - in
Ciaran -
Cillian - in
Conor - in
Damo - in
Darren - work
Derek -
Derek McL - in
Ed - in
Jules - in
Keith - in
Kings -
SteK - in
SteMcd - in
Julius - in
Dave - work

New Players

Pudsy -

CaesersSon

In

homerjay2005

ill be there...its a game we really have to win to end the season with some bit of grace after whats been a disaster 4 weeks.

Pudsy33

I have induction for a new job so not sure I will make tonight. I will definitely be up for the friendlies though.

sReq | uTeK

Out tonight guys, work 1st game i've missed all season, knee is a big niggly also.

Mousewar

sReq | uTeK wrote: »

Out tonight guys, work 1st game i've missed all season, knee is a big niggly also.

So long as you're back next season!

sReq | uTeK

Mousewar wrote: »

So long as you're back next season!

I'll be around for friendlies, just can't tonight big deals n **** :_

DeviantD

I will be there. Derek

mrDerek

I enjoyed the 442 tonight pity it was the last game of the season big difference when im able to come to collect it was able to influence the game a bit more going forward i thought we did quite well keeper pulled off a few good stops.
Defensively i wouldn't say the same some poor defending and a lot of the passing out from def killed us.
Teams is defo in need of some new players.

The flair up between the two lads was a bit ridiculous i know i lose the rag a lot but to have two players square up against each other was stupid honestly thought we were about to see a Bowyer v Dyer scenario and go down to 9 men.

Its **** about being back in the Wes.

helimachoptor

I love the Wes :pac:

Anyway, frustrating season for sure, maybe we were too complacent after romping home last season.

Either way, you can be sure our frustrations cost us points.

As cliched as it sounds, we will not win anything unless we play as a team.

Last year we had a good squad, people rotated in and out, how many battles did we have for 55 mins and then the team drove forward to score in the last few, how many times has that happened this year? Very few if any, instead in encouraging each other we are bitching.

Well done on the goals tally this year Derek.

Mousewar

Wes is a kip Keith - stop peddling that line!

At the start of this season we were hammering teams and I thought we were going to romp away with the league. And in the end we've had quite a mediocre season and ended it with an appalling run.

Tonight was dreadful. That's the pitch where it's hard to find goals and we conceded four! We've been absolutely hemorrhaging goals the last few games.

Atmosphere in the team really isn't great at the moment. That was a dead rubber game at the end of the season. It should have been a chance to work on some things with the pressure off. And instead we were at each other constantly. Doesn't make sense.

murtagh

Firstly,
Darren my apologies for the outbursts tonight, nobody comes up to be on the receiving end of that and it shouldn't have happened.

Unfortunately we weren't as dominant in the 2nd half tonight and got caught out badly on the counter attack too many times.
We were too loose at the back and gave them far too many chances when they started playing long with the wind in the 2nd half.
On the positive side we put some lovely moves together and scored some great goals.

With regard to the chat after the match, everyone has aspects of their game that can improve, whether they actually do improve over time is up to themselves. But its important to be able to take on board observations that others may have and consider them. And also to make your opinion known if there is something you think will improve someones game or our overall game as a team. That goes for every member of the squad regardless of years played or ability.

It was a shame how the results went in the last 4 or 5 games but if we can take the lessons from the end of this season and work on putting those things right for the winter league we'll be in a very good position to reclaim the title.

FrankGrimes

Mousewar wrote: »

Atmosphere in the team really isn't great at the moment. That was a dead rubber game at the end of the season. It should have been a chance to work on some things with the pressure off. And instead we were at each other constantly. Doesn't make sense.

This.

Everyone means well and I've no doubt lads will do whatever's needed to patch things up, and I know apologies were made on the night too. Sh1t happens in the heat of the moment but we do need to look at why those moments are happening in the first place.

It'll be 8 years next week since we started this team and the ethos of the team has been repeated ad nauseam and made clear to all joiners that it's a core part of what we're about. It's been a key factor in what I think has been a pretty special team spirit over the years, I know several opposition teams and refs have commented on it so there is something in it:

1. It's about the team and no player is more important or above that.

2. You don't get criticised when you try the right thing and it doesn't come off. You get encouragement to get it right next time.

3. You can expect to get pulled up on it when you're either trying the wrong thing or not listening to constructive feedback. All that'll be asked of you is that you acknowledge it, consider it and take valid points onboard and look to right it next time.

I've no concerns about the first point there as everyone plays for the team, but I think we've really lost sight of the other 2 core tenets in the past few weeks. We don't stop and listen to a point someone's making in case they might actually be trying to help or have a valid point; we tend to dismiss it almost by default (hands-up I was guilty of this with Cillian tonight - only upon his 3rd explanation did I actively listen about the kickout). We've developed a habit of looking to assign blame for mistakes instead of putting a verbal arm around a lad that knows he's just screwed up in the hope it might encourage him to put it right the next time. This isn't us..

When this team is at it's best, when a pass is misplaced we don't drop the head or stop or moan, we are always focused on our next action being whatever will most increase the chances of Boardeaux winning. So we bust a gut even when others mess up, we encourage not criticise, we listen to points teammates are making and we sometimes agree they have a point, we've sometimes even realised it ourselves already as above all, we look at ourselves in the mirror and ask what could I be trying to do better, not looking to reflect it at someone else.

That's not where we are right now and to be honest, it saddens me a little. The reason it does is when I sat back and thought about it tonight when I got home, I realised I don't just think we have a good squad of players capable of winning this league next season, more importantly, what we have is a great bunch of blokes: there's not one person I wouldn't look at and say he's a stand-up guy. That's not a common combination and a pretty damn good position to be in if you ask me. It's just that we're in a bit of a spiral the last few weeks and letting bad habits creep in.

Think we need to wipe the slate clean, let any lingering bad vibes go and start afresh focusing on not just playing quality football (which we know we're capable of) but on getting back to being a team.

Thanks to everyone for their commitment, quality and effort this season - despite the blips, it's been a pleasure to be a part of it. As always, major thanks to Des for everything he does, without him, we'd be a long way off where we are.

murtagh

Great goal and build-up for creating the second Derek

mrDerek wrote: »

Defensively i wouldn't say the same some poor defending and a lot of the passing out from def killed us.

Defensively lost our shape tonight, but dont think it was passing out that cost us... Admittedly there were a few lucky escapes from possession lost in our own half but all their goals came from long balls / route one, and were almost all 1-on-1, 2-on-2 situations (a bit like colmcilles last week). Thats something we need to work on as a defensive unit.
But on the flipside we need to figure out as a team why we havent created enough of our own 1v1 or 2v2 situations in the league this year, hardly any in the matches played in Benildus. Those are the scenarios where you're at your most effective and the team simply didnt create enough of them over the course of the season.

Wesleys not a great surface, but looking at it another way it's definitely not as forgiving to long-ball teams as ClmClls or Benildus pitches are where the ball holds up a lot more. The best way to play on the hard suface is into feet so i think it will favour us more in the way we want to play, and also make it tougher for teams to play an effective long ball game against us

mrDerek

I agree with many of your points Jules especially the one about the league next year.
I think we desperately need a ball winner In the middle
Another winger or two we don't have a lot of pace apart from kings out wide
Another centre back
And I dno if I'll be back yet but another striker especially if the teams switching to a 442

helimachoptor

yeah Wesley is defintely a defenders pitch, if the ball bounces in a lot of cases the attack breaks down for one reason or another.

But we can use that to our advantage, through balls on the ground for Derek to run on to, our passing is very good and if we do it we will win a lot.

I think Ciaran is that ball winner but for work he's missed a good few games

Mousewar

mrDerek wrote: »

And I dno if I'll be back yet but another striker especially if the teams switching to a 442

Ah here now - is someone's tapping you up?!

Doesn't matter what the surface is Derek, you'll still score a ton of goals. See ya for the winter season. :P

Keaner

Lads we can all look at the mistakes last night but lets not take away from the good things that worked from this experimental set-up:

Ste McD and Derek had 1 game up front on the pitch we found it hard to score on all season and both scored and could have had a few more! There is only room for them to improve together!
Few great saves from Ed from point blank and great off the line stop from Damo!
Great goal from Damo too!
Julius too had 1 or 2 good opportunities to score! very unfortunate not to.

I thought besides our inability to deal with long balls last night we were not that bad! just 3-4 errors in defence cost us, we had me in midfield so that could have cost us defensively as I don't usually play there. although have to say i did like playing there! (name in the hat)

Next season back to the Wes, lets remind everyone what we can do!! Que training Rocky Montage!

helimachoptor

Yeah i hit the bar and i think Julius the post with a header aswell, i defintely think the 442 helped us, we seemed to be better going forward.

So what your're staying Ste.. is that its all your fault.. :pac:

homerjay2005

helimachoptor wrote: »

Yeah i hit the bar and i think Julius the post with a header aswell, i defintely think the 442 helped us, we seemed to be better going forward.

So what your're staying Ste.. is that its all your fault.. :pac:

that game could have ended 8-8 all last night, they found it easier to create chances though as our line was really high in the second half and they got behind us 5 or 6 times.

Lovely Bloke

Yes, but we play with a high line. It's our game plan, it's the instruction to the players before every game.