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Rob Smallwood
Unicorn Platinum Reporter
United Kingdom
150 Posts |
 Posted - 10/03/2008 : 11:55:09
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Chris opened his pre-match team talk with a plea for consistency, to take forward the positives from last week's performance and build upon it.
The Metros couldn't have been better prepared, with a full training session on Thursday augmented by a marathon session at MUFC's Carrington training ground on Friday night.
The training appeared to have payed off when the Metro's took an early lead when Flixton failed to clear their lines and Eddie struck from just inside the box. ( 1 - 0  )
Unfortunately from then on the Metros only played in patches, or at least some of them did.
Failure to compete for the ball, look after it in when in possession and find team members with passes meant that for most of the first half the Metros were on the back foot and only the stirling efforts of Mattie, Johnny, Hash and Joe kept Flixton at bay, with Luke snuffing out any breaches of the defence.
The problem was that at the other end The Metros were unable to apply any pressure and really rarely looked like extending their lead although Calum nearly shocked us all with a superb acrobatic overhead kick which unfortunately went straight to the keeper
Things went down hill in the second half.
Firstly the weather turned from threatening to appalling as first the wind picked up and then a rain shower turned in to a brief hailstorm.
On the pitch things weren't much better. Flixton clearly did not enjoy being behind despite having the better of play, and the frustration of their coach (aimed in equal doses at their players and the referee) clearly filtered through to the players.
Flixton really employ one tactic, get the ball up to the forward(s) as quickly as possible, and this they did with the lions share of possession meaning that thew Metros defence were under constant bombardment.
It was really only a matter of time before Flixton scored and when they did it was no surprise that it came from a long ball through the middle which was finished neatly to make it 1 - 1.
The Metros continued to hang on and as tempers frayed on the touchline and the pitch the game became messy, not helped by a now quite greasy surface.
For a while it looked as though the Metros might sneak a point, but as the defence tired another long ball was allowed to bounce and the Flixton centre-forward used his strength to hold off any challenges to fire Flixton ahead with about 5 minutes to go.
The Metros still had a chance to force a draw when the Flixton keeper made a mess of a fairly simple gather and the ball fell to Oliver but as he tried to force it in the keeper recovered well to force a corner.
The Flixton third was a mirror of the second, scored in time added on by the now cold, wet and rather naffed off referee to give the scoreline a fairly true reflection of the game. (1 - 3  )
So why can't the Metros find the consistency that they need?
Nick put his fingers on one problem before the kick off - each week the squad turn up knowing that once the pre match warm up has started there are simple passing routines that are required. Each week a section of the squad see this as an opportunity to mess about - whilst our opponents at the other end go through their warm up routine in a professional manner.
I have to say that this is always worse at at home, where the pre-match build up is regularly disturbed by the ever growing group of local lads reluctant to leave the pitch (more of that later).
There were some good performances, and as Chris said after the game, those players who performed almost certainly know who they were, but there were some who seemed only half hearted, and that lets the others down.
To finish on a positive note Eddie is in a reach seam of form, and there is definitely enough ability within the squad to do much better - we just need to see the desire to match that ability.
Champagne Moment: Calum's overhead.
Man of the Match: Mattie continues to grow as a defender, and has formed a good playing relationship with Johnie - so I'm sharing it this week.
Nick's Man of the Match: I've re-named this section "Nick's M o M as he is the only one who ever answers! Over to you Nick. - edit Joe (see below)
Referee: With 5 minutes to go he was the worst referee Flixton had come across, by the end of the game things had changed. In my defence I think I was extremely lenient with some robust Flixton tackling and had to struggle in shoes with no grip!
Team homework: "Do you want it?".
Squad: Luke, Jonathon, Hash, Calum, Matty, Joe, Patrick, Ben F, Kenny, Tom M, Harry, Eddie, Josh, Ben W & Oliver
To go back to the "problem" of local lads playing on the pitch before the game and hanging around one goal I only discovered after the game that when Nick G went to sort out the pegging at the base of the post following a Flixton goal he discovered that two pegs were stuck in to the ground upside down, on the goal line. I'd like to think that this was just where they ended up, but I fear that they may have been put there to deliberately injure a player - something that we will need to keep a very close eye on.
Rob
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Edited by - Rob Smallwood on 10/03/2008 14:27:58 |
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Nick Rigden
Unicorn Platinum Reporter
United Kingdom
55 Posts |
Posted - 10/03/2008 : 13:49:55
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My M o M is a defender as well.
Matt and Jonny both did well, but I'm going to plump for Joe, for improved performances in the last couple of weeks since being restored to his right-back position. Keep it up Joe
I'm pleased that you saved me from accusations of parental bias by choosing Cal's overhead kick as the champagne moment (it would have been my choice too) - shame that it didn't avoid the keeper.
As for the match - yet again there was not enough appetite, from enough players, to do the hard graft necessary to win matches.
There were, encouragingly, some signs that some of the players had listened to Chris regarding trying to pass the ball more, but you can't do this unless you compete to have the ball in the first place.
We appear to have no match arranged for this Sunday (16th) - do we want to try and organise a friendly? Broadheath B (currently bottom of the 1st division) and Parkwyddh (currently top of the 3rd) appear to be without games that day also, and might be possible candidates.
Alternatively, if we can get the whole squad down, plus a couple more of those who are interested in signing on, we might have enough for a 9-a-side game.
Or we could all have a week off..... (although it might be more than one as we have no fixture scheduled until April at present)
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Rob Smallwood
Unicorn Platinum Reporter
United Kingdom
150 Posts |
Posted - 10/03/2008 : 14:26:54
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I thoroughly concur with your choice of Joe.
I was looking forward to a weekend off until I realised that City are at home to Spurs on Sunday so there will be no Sunday lunch for me - so I think a friendly or training on grass would be a great idea - what do the others think?
Rob |
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Matt
Unicorn Bronze Reporter
United Kingdom
6 Posts |
Posted - 10/03/2008 : 21:59:21
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With regards to man of the match, i would go for Johnny as he never fails to put in a good performance. He also covered for me when i went up to attack. I felt that Johnny and i managed to keep that attacker at bay for most of the match apart from a few slip ups.(he was twice the size of me!) as a team i think we need to work on our game plan such as working out the other team and marking accordingly.
champagne moment: None we're all too young
Powerade moment: I agree with calum's over head kick |
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Rob Smallwood
Unicorn Platinum Reporter
United Kingdom
150 Posts |
Posted - 11/03/2008 : 10:36:02
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Don't worry Matt - Nick & I will share the champagne - the last thing you need is Powerade!!
Rob |
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Matt
Unicorn Bronze Reporter
United Kingdom
6 Posts |
Posted - 11/03/2008 : 21:57:54
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| I think it would be a great idea to arrange a friendly or a training session. I think we should try and get all the training we can. We need it. |
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Metros 1 - 3 Flixton Sunday 9th March 2008
