Post by bluephysio on Apr 14, 2011 21:15:39 GMT 1
Bit of a disastrous result and performance from our reserves on Tues night at home to Mattishall, resulting in a 5-2 tonking. We arrived at the ground with quite a strong squad which included the returning Sam Giacomelli and Ben Jones, along with Gary Gilmore, Claudio Langois, Gavin Pauling and Olly King who were all back from injury and needing match time. On paper the side looked well balanced with Nathan Pauling once again in the sticks,Jimmy Layton, Jamie Atkins, Sam Giacomelli and Ben Jones in defence. In midfield we had Jamie George, Marc Campbell, Andy Eastaugh , Gary Gilmore and Cladio Langlois and up top on his own was John Curtis. This left Olly , Gav , and youngsters Sam Holt and Rio Starkings on the bench
A strong looking line up on paper and even as I write this now and look at those names before me, its still hard to figure out how we got such a thrashing on our own muck heap from an industrious but not over imaginative Mattishall team.
We started off ok as the game settled down but it soon became apparent that it was going to be a difficult night as one or two players were obviously finding it hard to get themselves into the game and win their own personal battles and this is always going to leave the team exposed against a physical and cohesive unit such as Mattishall. We tried to play our passing game but all too often a simple pass or positional thought seemed too difficult for our lads to comprehend and this led to manager Eastaugh being particularly vociferous on the touch line to one or two of our players on more than one occasion.! To be fair though Mattishalls first goal came slightly against the run of play at the time as we were starting to get one or two half decent passages of play going and it did visably knock the lads back but we showed some resilience and clawed a goal back shortly after through that fox-in-the-box Jamie George. Sadly tho we once again allowed the opposition to take the upper hand and the lead and let us go in at half time 2-1 down. Time for some strong words and personal observations about that performance from manager Eastaugh and he certainly did’nt mince his words as he singled out individually players who he thought were not doing the team justice. Now I have say in Steve Eastaugh’s defence that this is probably the first time I have witnessed him single out individual players for criticism and nothing he said was untrue but some players did take offence and I think they have to learn that being a successful club means that sometimes that they have to be took out of their own comfort zone and taught that all things in football don’t revolve around them ! So with the dressing downs metered out we took to the field with a little more enthusiasm. Manager Eastaugh did make a change with vastly experienced Gavin Pauling coming on to replace Jamie Atkins. Once again we started off fine and pulled level from a great strike from John Curtis after some good build up play but once again we let in a soft goal after some poor defending. This was followed by a fourth and by now the play was getting end to end but it would be fair to say that it was Mattishall who were looking the more dangerous on the attack with us still struggling to get our passes to another man in a blue shirt and when we did we seemed to quickly be dispossessed. We did have a great free kick from Jimmy Layton strike the bar but apart from that bit of quality we did lack any real ideas on how to breach a stubborn Mattishall rearguard. Even the introduction of the ever eager Olly King could not raise our game. At the end they scored a fifth to give it a bit of a flattering look but did’nt hide the fact that they had stuck to their managers game plan of hustling us into mistakes and attacking and defending as a unit and they had reaped the reward. We on the other hand looked extremely second rate with some players making more mistakes than can be justified.
Hard to take out any positives from this display. Once again Sam Giacomelli did’nt disappoint and John Curtis worked his socks off up front but some other players ,if they were honest, could have delivered much more. It did seem that we could not match their hard working midfield and they did seem to pull Andy Eastaugh and Mark Campbell apart so much that you could have marched a salvation army brass band through our centre midfield area !!. This coupled to low key performances from the recuperating Gary Gilmore and Claudio Langlois , also in that vital midfield area , made us look second best for long parts of the game . And as most people will agree the midfield in any game has to be won for a team to be productive. This coupled to constant individual errors and uncertainty by our defence certainly cost us points in this game. Guess it was just one of those nights because I know for sure that every player on that team sheet cares very much about performing for not only Wroxham FC but for Steve Eastaugh himself and in the cold light of day they probably think they owe him an apology for that type of display.
Now we have to move on and forget that game and the players have to prepare themselves for the visit of Beccles next Tues night. Lets hope this performance is slightly more enthusiastic and we keep ourselves near the top and finish this season in some style.
A strong looking line up on paper and even as I write this now and look at those names before me, its still hard to figure out how we got such a thrashing on our own muck heap from an industrious but not over imaginative Mattishall team.
We started off ok as the game settled down but it soon became apparent that it was going to be a difficult night as one or two players were obviously finding it hard to get themselves into the game and win their own personal battles and this is always going to leave the team exposed against a physical and cohesive unit such as Mattishall. We tried to play our passing game but all too often a simple pass or positional thought seemed too difficult for our lads to comprehend and this led to manager Eastaugh being particularly vociferous on the touch line to one or two of our players on more than one occasion.! To be fair though Mattishalls first goal came slightly against the run of play at the time as we were starting to get one or two half decent passages of play going and it did visably knock the lads back but we showed some resilience and clawed a goal back shortly after through that fox-in-the-box Jamie George. Sadly tho we once again allowed the opposition to take the upper hand and the lead and let us go in at half time 2-1 down. Time for some strong words and personal observations about that performance from manager Eastaugh and he certainly did’nt mince his words as he singled out individually players who he thought were not doing the team justice. Now I have say in Steve Eastaugh’s defence that this is probably the first time I have witnessed him single out individual players for criticism and nothing he said was untrue but some players did take offence and I think they have to learn that being a successful club means that sometimes that they have to be took out of their own comfort zone and taught that all things in football don’t revolve around them ! So with the dressing downs metered out we took to the field with a little more enthusiasm. Manager Eastaugh did make a change with vastly experienced Gavin Pauling coming on to replace Jamie Atkins. Once again we started off fine and pulled level from a great strike from John Curtis after some good build up play but once again we let in a soft goal after some poor defending. This was followed by a fourth and by now the play was getting end to end but it would be fair to say that it was Mattishall who were looking the more dangerous on the attack with us still struggling to get our passes to another man in a blue shirt and when we did we seemed to quickly be dispossessed. We did have a great free kick from Jimmy Layton strike the bar but apart from that bit of quality we did lack any real ideas on how to breach a stubborn Mattishall rearguard. Even the introduction of the ever eager Olly King could not raise our game. At the end they scored a fifth to give it a bit of a flattering look but did’nt hide the fact that they had stuck to their managers game plan of hustling us into mistakes and attacking and defending as a unit and they had reaped the reward. We on the other hand looked extremely second rate with some players making more mistakes than can be justified.
Hard to take out any positives from this display. Once again Sam Giacomelli did’nt disappoint and John Curtis worked his socks off up front but some other players ,if they were honest, could have delivered much more. It did seem that we could not match their hard working midfield and they did seem to pull Andy Eastaugh and Mark Campbell apart so much that you could have marched a salvation army brass band through our centre midfield area !!. This coupled to low key performances from the recuperating Gary Gilmore and Claudio Langlois , also in that vital midfield area , made us look second best for long parts of the game . And as most people will agree the midfield in any game has to be won for a team to be productive. This coupled to constant individual errors and uncertainty by our defence certainly cost us points in this game. Guess it was just one of those nights because I know for sure that every player on that team sheet cares very much about performing for not only Wroxham FC but for Steve Eastaugh himself and in the cold light of day they probably think they owe him an apology for that type of display.
Now we have to move on and forget that game and the players have to prepare themselves for the visit of Beccles next Tues night. Lets hope this performance is slightly more enthusiastic and we keep ourselves near the top and finish this season in some style.
