Usain Bolt. We need to talk. You have an issue. We have an issue. The thing is we seem to be coming from the opposite end of the spectrum and can definitely help each other out. Your problem is you’re too fast out of the blocks. This has led to you losing out on a guaranteed 100 metres gold at the recent world championships. We on the other hand don’t seem capable of coming out of the blocks at anything other than Stephen Hawkinesque speed. Where are we going wrong? Can you offer any advice? Is it the warm up, are people not focused when the whistle goes, or are we not having enough chicken nuggets before a game?
Seriously, though, this game was both encouraging and frustrating in equal measure. We lost 3 -1 but were the better side for at least ¾ of the match. We found ourselves down 2 – 0 after 8 minutes due to some slack defending – if I had to donate a pound for every time the call of ‘don’t dive in’ was ignored.. (mostly by me, worryingly). This seemed to spur us on though and we began to dominate possession and territory.
The Kennington park sandpit was not the easiest of pitches to dribble or even change direction on but on the occasions that we switched play we really began to open up the oppos defences. If we could have moved the ball a little quicker – rather than trying to beat that one extra person – we may have been able to have more opportunities on goal. We were also guilty of not being ruthless enough in the last third of the pitch. All players were guilty of not looking for a short corner or colleague in the d when we got close. This meant we didn’t have anywhere near enough shots as our possession indicated we should have. As it was our goal (rocket?) came more from their keeper seeming to be guarding an imaginary goal to the side of the real one, although he may just have been taken aback by us actually taking a shot!
When we scored it brought it to 2 – 1 and we were very much in the ascendency. It is times like this where we need to be savvy and keep possession. Getting hit on the break and conceding a soft goal was not we needed. Although we then pressed hard we were unable to score the elusive second and push for more.
Some major positives from this week’s game as we are beginning to play to our structure much better and look like a team. The defence were much tighter and our midfield much more composed than in previous weeks and it was good to see. Next week we’ll just have to score more goals than them… Another loss for Croydon Hockey.
This Match report was brought to you in part by Trevor Clarke. This report may not reflect the views of Croydon & Old Whitgiftian Hockey Club
