Anyway, the second half saw Haringey raise their game considerably, at least with a regard to some kind of end product. There were still many fine defensive performances from the Accies, despite the fact that we conceded five in the second half. I'll mention a few, although its by no means a comprehensive list: Dave was superb in goal, pulling off a string of fine saves, through the second half in particular; Andy Dade made a number of great tracking runs, often resulting in a decisive shot-denying tackles; Luis, after a first half were i thought he struggled to make an impact, returned in the second with greater resolve to stand out as one of the few Accies who managed to protect the ball and hold onto possession; and Phil and Luke, given the constant flurry of attacks they had to deal with, made innumerable interventions and clearances.
As I said to most people after the game, if we play with the same level of commitment and team spirit that we showed in this game our results should take care of themselves.
With our next few games in mind its probably only fair to pass on a few brief thoughts, given the current situation. Joe's resignation came as a shock to me as it seems to have done to pretty much everyone else. He did a terrific job, which I think was the general consensus of the club. Strenuous efforts have been made by several people within the club to get him to change his mind but, as yet, to no avail. Therefore, as it stands at the moment, i'm happy to pick the team and generally run things football related. Constructive advice/assistance is more than welcome from anybody, with the proviso that its brief and to the point around game time, as i'll be trying to talk to as many people as possible individually before the game, and at half time longer chats are simply not possible. Simply put, whether i'm doing this for a couple more weeks, until somebody else takes over as coach, or til the end of the year, everybody should feel they have something to contribute as the club belongs to all of us.
Therefore, on a practical level there are a couple of things that will change for as long as I'm picking the team. Firstly, the team for Thursday will be picked between 6-7 on a Wednesday evening, so if you haven't confirmed through the Blog, or by text directly to me, there is no possibility of you being in the squad of 15 ( unless, of course, we are short on match day !!). Secondly, the rule where if you missed the previous week you were ineligible for the next game has been scrapped. It still might be the case that you do miss the next week but it wont be because of that. Selection, as it always has been, will be based on Form, Fitness, Talent and Commitment, although it should be stressed that everybody will probably still be required to miss a week due to squad size at some point. If you have already done this a couple of times this year don't worry, they were not in vain, as Joe has very kindly sent me this years stats in an extremely lengthy email (thanks Joe !!!) and i plan to keep using them as the basis for maintaining fair playing timewithin the squad. Thirdly, as Joe did, the team will be named at 8.05, but it will be done on or around the pitch without a lenghty pre-match team talk. This will take place a few minutes before the game to cover a few general points, although my idea is to try to talk to everybody individually before KO, as I mentioned earlier.
Anyway this is becoming far too long and I think I have covered all for now!! I hope to see everyone fighting fit come Thursday so we can get back to winning ways and enjoy being on the grass again…
1 comment:
Sounds good to me Andy!
Good luck in whatever period you have this unenviable task for!!
No Seriously, you do and will do a great job, and I hope all Accies FINALLY buy into the coach idea/ethic
Post a Comment