Effra 8 Southside 4

A thoroughly enjoyable match last night finished with a convincing scoreline in our favour. What was even more convincing in my opinion was the manner in which we played the game. Our one-touch and two-touch passing was excellent from back to front. Everybody wanted the ball, and indeed we were demanding the ball from each other. We rained crosses in to the Southside box at every opportunity, and we made our possession count, converting a string of chances in to goals. Had we have managed to be even more clinical in front of goal, we would have reached double figures.

Before the game I quoted Harry Redknapp's comments regarding James Milner's performance for England on Wednesday night (see my previous blog post). We managed, even at our level, to prove the point. As cross after cross was swung in to the box, our attacking players grew in the confidence and knowledge that should they make the run in to the box, the ball will come. Sam Herbert in particular reaped the rewards with four goals on the night and some outstanding link-up play in receiving the ball centrally and then working it wide in to feet. For a solid 20-25 minute spell in the first-half alone we looked like we would score every time we attacked. What a joy to see from my perspective!

All due respect to Southside, they arrived without at least three key players, but they still approached the game in an enthusiastic and spirited manner. They'll no doubt feel the scoreline doesn't do them justice, especially as Accie Dean Marney scored three of their four goals. However, we hope to meet them again, and with any luck it'll be a full strength team next time round.

The MOTM award went to midfield enforcer Luis Sandoval (who right now will be cheering the fact his native Chile have reached the last 16 of the World Cup - many congratulations Luis!). He had some serious competition though following a number of exceptional performances with Sam Herbert, Andy Thornes, Andy Dade, Graeme Were and Phill Arnold all catching the eye.

If we can carry this form, level of performance and confidence on the ball in to next week's game against Dolphin, it should be a classic encounter!

Keep the faith!

Joe

Read and take note...

Love him or loathe him, Harry Redknapp has an undeniable ability to simplify what should be, in essence, a simple game. Commenting on last night's England match, Redknapp spelt out in the easiest possible way the importance of getting early balls in to the box. Redknapp wrote in The Sun this morning:

"What I like about Milner is he doesn't try to do too much of the fancy stuff but instead concentrates on what is bread and butter to strikers - getting his crosses in.

Every manager should show Jermain's goal to their players as it demonstrates you don't need to beat players on the wing to put in a match-winning cross.

David Beckham was a master at it. You rarely saw him take on players but you knew the quality of his delivery as he bent the ball in would be top class.

Milner does not have great pace, he does not possess fantastic skill but he does what Becks used to do so effectively, he makes a yard on a defender and in comes the ball.

There's nothing worse for strikers than seeing your winger constantly lose the ball when he tries to dribble past a full-back.

You don't have to beat people, you can cross effectively in front of a full-back instead of trying to get past him all the time."

If it's good enough for England's finest, and a top-four manager(!), it's got to be good enough for us...

Keep the faith!

Joe

Am I Missing Something?

Have just noticed all references to the 10th Anniversary party have been removed from the blog, surely it's not all off again is it?

Effra 1 MHP 4

Last night, we didn't really "turn up" in football parlance, particularly in the first half. The change in venue from our spiritual home of CP should not be offered up as an excuse. Late arrivals (myself included) and lack of thorough warm-up meant we started the game on the back foot. MHP were very comfortable on the ball, stringing five, six, seven and more passes together, particularly through the middle of the pitch. It was inevitable that they would take the lead, and soon after they grabbed a second.

We attempted, wherever possible, to play football on the proverbial deck, even at 2-0 down, and that was the most pleasing aspect of a disappointing first-half. What was a lot less pleasing was the blatant fouling by members of the MHP team, one of whom grabbed Phill Arnold by the face in an off-the-ball incident. Phill served up the best possible retribution by continually mugging the same MHP player of the ball for the rest of the match.

The half-time break couldn't come quick enough. We needed to re-group, and work together on marking tighter to give MHP less room to knock the ball around. We started the second-half much stronger, and were good value for the goal we pulled back via a "phantom touch" off of Andy Thornes from a Greg Rainey free-kick. We certainly could have made more from our set-pieces last night, with Thornes especially unlucky having seen a glancing header bounce just wide of the post from an earlier free-kick.

The more we flooded forward in search of an equaliser, the more susceptible we were to conceding, and so it was to prove to be as we eventually ended up losing 4-1.

Apologies for my tardy coaching after the game and lack of post-match team talk. I was in some discomfort thanks to a major minor surgery on my back, and was concerned about my injury. The lack of available dressing room didn't help much either!

The MOTM award goes to Phill Arnold, composed as always, even when faced by a completely hostile opposition player (although I vaguely seem to remember Phill taking the same guy out late in the second-half!).

Let's hope for a return to our more fluid passing, attacking style next week!

Keep the faith!

Joe

Bad breaking news

CPNSC have called with the bad news that we won't be able to return to playing on the grass until Thursday 19 August.  There's an Aviva athletics event the week before that and my guess is that they want to leave the pitch alone between now and then so it looks all lovely for the TV cameras.

Watch this space for news of what we'll be doing and when...

Dulwich Debut

Thanks to everyone for contributing towards a really enjoyable first Accies night at Dulwich.
Neill R's Blue and Red team prevailed 6-4 against Phill A's white team, with The Red and Blues weathering a late storm to hold on for victory, Little Joe,Sam,Tremayne, and Greg notching great finishes in the second half.
On a personal note, highlights for me included that both teams tried to play good football in a great atmosphere and i bet Barry's still smiling after his storming run and emphatic finish .
Special thanks to Sam for bringing the Brixton lads down, and what a refreshing change to see sports centre staff actually running and climbing fences to help us to retrieve footballs, and even joining in to make up numbers when a player went off injured - not a walkie talkie in sight.
Let's take this great team spirit and good play into next week's game - who knows, we might even win.
....................and by the way, did anyone put anything in Luis's tea at half time? After a quiet first half,Luis rolled back the years with a display of samba magic. Maybe Luis doesn't need a breather as often as we think.