Effra 1 Dolphin Riders 11

I am deeply saddened to have had to type out that headline. It's humiliating and I hope I'm not the only person who feels that way.

We actually started the game brightly last night, and I was pleased to hear in the pub afterwards that most players felt the same way. We KEPT OUR SHAPE, KEPT OUR DISCIPLINE, AND tried to PLAY SIMPLE PASSING FOOTBALL. We were unfortunate to go 1-0 down, when a LACK OF SHAPE, LACK OF DISCIPLINE and a LACK OF CLOSING DOWN meant that Dolphin nicked the first goal of the night.

We equalised thanks to a thunderous volley from Greg Rainey from the edge of the box, and suddenly we were looking much brighter again.

We trudged off at half-time - inexplicably - 3-1 down. A LACK OF SHAPE, LACK OF DISCIPLINE and a LACK OF CLOSING DOWN meant Dolphin had grabbed another two goals before the half-time whistle, but I genuinely felt we were still in it. I explained at half-time, as clearly as I possibly could, that our LACK OF SHAPE, LACK OF DISCIPLINE and a LACK OF CLOSING DOWN was again proving to be our undoing, for the third consecutive week.

The second half couldn't have started any worse than it actually did, when, from our own kick-off, nobody seemed to want to receive the ball. At this point, we had 9 players behind the ball, all in our own half. The ball ran back to Lee Clifford, who made a good connection with his long range clearance. Unfortunately, it was collected by a Dolphin CB, who had the time and space to take a touch, steady himself, and smack a bouncing ball from clearly inside his own half over Lee's head and in to the back of the net. From this point on, we literally fell apart.

If it wasn't for the never-say-die attitude displayed by Andy Thornes and Phil Caldwell (our makeshift CB pairing), we would have undoubtedly lost by an even bigger margin. We were reduced to following shadows. Some people, I will happily admit, actually chased shadows, but mostly we were following, and were virtually pedestrian at times as we watched Dolphin play around us and hit the back of the net with virtually every shot they had.

A late second half re-shuffle saw us change to a 4-3-3, in a vain attempt to give the strikers some more support and to put Dolphin under some amount of pressure. For 5-10 minutes, we made it work, and some good play up front could easily have led to a goal or two on another night. What that change eventually led to though was an overruning of our midfield and subsequently our defence. Our general fitness and sprinting speed was simply not good enough from most of the 14 who played, myself included. I can't force people to lose weight and/or get fitter. But after last night's performance people will surely realise that this is a necessity in some cases. I said last night, with, yet again, players lining up on the side of the pitch to get on, that everybody should run their socks off for as long as they can. As soon as they feel they can't manage any more, then come off for a breather, safe in the knowledge you'll get back on again. We all need to be more honest in this regard.

There aren't many positives to take out of last night. I'd like to ask everybody who played to think about their own performances. Trying to ignore/forget this performance means we'll be setting ourselves up for another big fall next week. Everybody must have a desire to play better, run further, tackle harder, jump higher, close quicker, control better and pass more accurately if we are to get back to winning ways.

Keep the faith!

Joe