Welcome back to the Black Boy FC website all, at last the club faithful get the opportunity to discuss, critique and take the piss after our weekend fixtures. Also, keep an eye out for the updated club news, league table and upcoming fixtures on the right-hand side. Apologies though for the lack of content and pictures, this will grow over the coming weeks like a pretty pretty flower.
Well despite the slightly misleading heading I think on reflection I am relatively happy after losing 4-1 to Garby this weekend. This was always going to be a difficult game given we had not played in a month, new faces in the team, Garby riding high in Division 1 and that's not even mentioning JJ having no sleep after a late night of gluing Aeroplanes back together.
We started the game a bit shaky and struggled to hold on to possession, but some good tackles and high work rate from the defence and Driver helped us hold Garby out in the opening exchanges. We then nearly got lucky with Phil's close range header being well saved after a well worked throw in. For the majority of the first half despite a lack of possession we did a great job of really holding the middle of the pitch and despite seeing a lot of the ball Garby failed to get many good opportunities through on goal and started to grow frustrated in themselves. Rees in his first start for the club made several good solid tackles and clearances to relieve pressure. Garby finally took the lead after a good header from a corner, however we were left watching and failed to track runners allowing a free header to be made. After Garby's goal however we seemed to pick up momentum and had a good last 5-10 minutes of pinning Garby in their half. We particularly made good use of our throw ins on the small pitch, with both Charlie and JJ getting the ball into the centre of the box. This part of our game seems to have really improved of late so lets look to start capitalising on the throws of Charlie and JJ by crowding the box and making sure we are ready to react to the ball pinging around in the box. At half time I think we all knew the tie was not over yet and despite their possession Garby were certainly not outplaying us and the next goal would always be vital.
We made a fantastic start to the second half and straight away looked to take the game to Garby by getting attempts on goal and pressing high on the ball when they were in possession. Therefore it was no surprise when after 5 minutes into the second half a well directed header by Charlie (definitely not an attempt on goal!) was turned in at the far post by the legendary marauding Flan. Confidence was high amongst us and the game was open for a good ten minutes with both teams fighting hard in the middle of the park to try and get the next important goal. Unfortunately for us it was another header from another corner that put Garby back in the lead. From that point momentum was with Garby who stuck another two goals past us all coming from corners (no guesses for areas of improvement for this week). Despite falling 4-1 behind credit must go to all players who kept battling throughout the remainder of the game. It was great on the side to hear so many players communicating, giving team mates calls as well as praising each other. At times this year after conceding we have gone into meltdown and started moaning at each other or simply not talking, therefore I really can not stress enough how good it was to see us all playing together and helping each other along with no moaning but just constant words of encouragement. It was this attitude and battling that gave us a good couple of chances at the end of the game with Rhino, Garthy, Flan and Phil all having chances which were either well saved or just wide.
Overall despite the defeat everyone should give themselves a pat on the back for the way we played the game. Despite losing we never gave up and kept morale high and it made a visible difference to how we looked as a team on the side lines. We lost 8-1 earlier in the year to Garby and in that respect we have improved from that performance, they have been the best team in either league this year so to have matched them in open play for large parts of the game is a credit to all players. The only moaning point from myself is how we defended set plays. Whilst there were changes at the back we did look all out of sorts and appeared to not know who was marking who....or just simply did a poor job of doing so. This is something we really need to improve as it is a very simple skill to pick up and will make a great difference to how we concede a lot of our goals. From here on out before we kick off a game this will be something we look at and talk about so bare this in mind before this weeks fixture.
Anyone who has read this far without losing the will to live congratulations! This week we face Wickhambrook in the league in a mid table battle!! Last two seasons we have finished in the bottom half of the league, a win against Wickhambrook will see us in a great position to sneak in the top 5 so lets be ready to go for the win bringing the attitude and confidence through from Saturday's performance, but perhaps not how we defended corners!
Graham Plummer
CEO of Black Boy Industries Ltd
