Minstrel Boy 1 – Old Ball 3 O.G (I am sure a lot of people will wish to claim it) Played at Banner Lane Minstrel Boy returned to Banner Lane for their first home tie of the 2013/14 season, playing against current top of the league – Old Ball, having won 3 out of 3 before this fixture. There was a few changes to the starting line-up, most noticeably was the change in goal. Having injured his shin, goalkeeper Chris Wickes was forced to withdraw from the squad with less than an hour before kick-off. Up stepped James ‘Jeb’ Brown and a lot of credit has to be given to him for doing it for the team. Adam Reeve and Jason Walker where back in the squad, fresh from plenty of man time on their boys holiday. Sam Lyttle made his first start of the season, as did Sam Whitehouse after a pre-season blighted with injury. Adam Wells made his first start of the season also. The first half was a fairly poor affair for The Min, who failed to gain any ball retention of any real note. Often our first touch was poor, or none existence. This often gave Old Ball the opportunity to get onto the ball and put The Min’s goal under attack. Jeb made several saves and came to meet the ball when required. Greg Smith had to come off in the first half due to an ankle injury, being replaced by Daniel Blockley. After a few near misses by Old Ball, hitting the frame of the goal on more than one occasion, they finally broke the deadlock. Their right winger moved inside the pitch and fired in a shot from outside the area, with very little Jeb could do about it. It was a well hit shot, with power. There was too many times when Old Ball wasn’t put under pressure, giving them time to pick out a pass. Old Ball got their second goal of the game, and took a two nil lead into half time. After a half-time team talk and reassessment Minstrel Boy came out with more belief and started to do the things that were asked of them. The Min had a lot more time on the ball, looked for each other and also pressed down a lot more than in the first half. The general team effort boosted and it resulted in a goal after a goal attempt ended up hitting a few players and in truth it was hard to tell who could be rewarded with the goal. After a good 25 mins of play in the second half, Old Ball managed to take the sting out of the game and the quality dropped. Adam Reeve had a chance to get himself a glorious Facebook status by bringing The Min level, but put the ball wide after a great through ball from midfield. With a few minutes left on the clock Old Ball’s key centre midfield found himself some space in the box from a corner and headed in Old Ball’s third and final goal. Overall there was probably 30 mins of football during this game that The Min could class as decent, proactive football. Unfortunately for us, there was still a big period of the game where we didnt have control of the game. I am not saying we are going to be the Cov District’s Barcelona, equally I do not wish us to be a Stoke City either. We do not need to over pass things, and I do not ask that of you as a team, but we need a little work on ball retention. If we are a little wiser with the ball, we will score more and win more. Football is a lot more enjoyable when you’re winning and I personally have been a right bad loser for the three games we have lost this season. As we saw from this game, nearly every ball that was played long was headed clear by Old Ball’s captain playing at centre-back. If we played 10 long balls and it worked once and we scored, then great, but we also have to consider what happens with the ball the other 9 times. In this game Old Ball won the ball off us a lot from this and then we ended being on the back foot. There are also other aspects to consider, and I am aware of this. Were there other options for player with the ball? It is all things for us to work on and improve, starting with training on Wednesday and building into Sunday’s home fixture against F K Striker 09. MOM: James ‘Jeb’ Brown – for great effort and team approach when putting himself forward to cover in goal. Jeb made several good saves during the match and we are all grateful for him stepping in at short notice from outfield. MBFC: J.Brown (GK), A.McNaney, A.Fellows (C), S.Quinney (A.Reeve) S.Lyttle (J.Rollason) J.Lee, S.Whitehouse, W.Edwards, J.Walker, G.Smith (D.Blockley), A.Wells.
Posted on: Mon, 23 Sep 2013 13:04:44 +0000