Match Report

Match : 2nd XI v North Down
Date : 2007-11-02
Venue : H
Score : 0-4
Scorers :

By Kriss Leslie

Considering the seconds new-found confidence, this match ended in somewhat of an anti-climax. We turned up confident, but went home beaten by a much more clinical North Down side.

North Down started on the front foot, and won a number of short corners, too many in fact. Although we were lucky to keep the game at 0-0. As the game went on however, we eventually got into some sort of rythm. We had a period of sustained pressure in the opposition half, but it resulted only in an East shot which went just wide of the top corner, and a David Blair shot saved by the keeper.

But North Down coped comfortably with our pressure, and they soon began to find thier feet again. They won another short corner, and this time a shot from the top of the D resulted in us going a goal down. Down now began to look confident and soon after they got a second, when a Down player was rather cheaply awarded the chance to hit a reverse shot from the top of the D.

Half time came and Ronnie rallied the troops. In the second half we began to attack in search of a goal that would get us back into the game. This resulted in North Down launching numerous counter attacks, as some of our defense got caught too high up the pitch.

The constant East pressure again resulted in very little as we failed to open up the North Down defence. We only got 1 short corner and a few dangerous balls into the D.

Our failure to score lead to us conceeding two further goals. Both from North Down counter-attacks, and both from cheap shots from the top of the D!

We still continued to press, and N.Down had a player yellow carded for a very late challenge. However, we still didnt even get a consolation goal, with Kriss hitting the post near the end of the match.

On Friday, I personally noticed that we dont work enough as a unit. All too often players didnt support others isolated up front, and some isolated themselves by running into dead-ends. How many of our attacks involved just two or three players on one side of the pitch for example?

Overall, the most disapointing thing was that the four goals conceeded were cheap ones. We cannot allow teams to have shots from the top of the D. Even a bit of pressure might have resulted in a shot which went wide, but each goal scorer was given the opportunity to slot their shot past Peter in goals.

But we can still take a lot out of that match. We had them on the back foot for the whole second half, and even though we were 4-0 down, we still continued to press forward in good spirit. We must continue that good spirit if we wish to get back into winning ways.