Posting on behalf of Captain Andrew Thornes. Usually I get a chance to tidy up/edit Andy's posts but no such luck on this occasion, so this is straight from our leader's mind!
I would hope everybody invovlved with last weeks game was as disappointed as I was, both with the result and the performance. Before getting into some of the issues raised by the game i would like to single a few players out for praise. Firstly, I thought Barry's willingness to go in goal and sacrifice himself for the team shouldn't go unheralded. He made several key blocks and saves and i thought it was typically unselfish of him to offer to go in goal bearing in mind the difficulties he had during his last outing between the sticks. Great character ! Many will point to his mistake on the goal but its worth pointing out that we should have score six or seven, which would have made the goal irrelevant. Secondly, and for the fourth or fifth week in a row, I thought Greg was excellent , both defensively and with his distribution out of defence. I also thought both Steve and Joe spent the evening trying to do all the right things, often being undermined by play that didn't buy into our game plan of 'pass and move'. This brings me rather neatly onto the issue of our game plan, or rather, our seeming lack of it.
Since taking over the role of nominal coach I have tried to keep things simple and slowly introduce three basic principles that will make us a much more effective team, hopefully also giving us better results and greater enjoyment. In case anybody is in any doubt as to what these are I am going to briefly outline them again.
The first thing that I thought needed to be put right was our communication on the field. By and large, and with the exception of the last few weeks, I have felt we have made great, positive strides forward in this area. Our talking is simple, constructive and for the most part effective, giving us the right platform to play decent, attacking football. On Thursday we appeared to forget the lessons we have fought hard to learn. Our talking was poor and most of its was negative, as we either bickered or criticised our own team mates or, as the game wore on, the oppostion. This is something we have to sort out immediately. Fortunately it's very simple to do, especially as we have been so much better in this regard for most of the year.
I then tried to introduce us to simple 'pass and move' football, rather than the incoherent 'kick and rush', 'park' football that had apparently become our default style, Neill and Simon's efforts not withstanding. At times this year we have employed this method with devastating effects. The last few weeks has seen a depressingly familar selfishness creeping back into our play, which culminated in our abject performance on Thursday. We need to be very clear that if players want to take eight or nine touches, refuse an easy pass or not stick to the position you have been asked to play it will be a long, cold evening on the bench. I can promise this is not an idle threat, as I am deeply committed to being fair to everyone in the club and this type of play brings down the level of the whole team for the cause of greedy, selfish individualism. The game is really simple- find space, receive the ball, control it, look up, pass the ball and move into space again. We may not win every game playing like this, as there are always players and teams more skillful, physically fitter or better organised, but we will be A TEAM ! I am not prepared to see a majority of hardworking, talented footballers made to seem like 'mugs' against far inferior opposition again. Anyway, the positive side of all this is that I truly believe everyone in the squad is crucial and can make a valuable contribution to the team, so we all start with a blank slate this week and hopefully a clear idea in our heads of how we can all improve.
The third change in the Accies overall approach to the game i have tried to introduce is to make us more compact, and therefore harder to break down defensively. This we have tried to do by dropping into a default postion of two banks of four situated in our own half, with two strikers hovering around the half way line once we lose possession. On Thursday this was not really an issue, as the opposition really didn't have any meaningful attempts on goal except for Tremayne's speculative, miss-hit cross ! This aspect of the game becomes very easy to implement if communication and a 'pass and move' attitude are in place, so i wont dwell on this element of Thursday's game.
Anyway, there we have it. By Thursday the cartoon steam will have hopefully stopped rushing from my ears and we can get back to playing real, committed football. For myself i can't wait for Thursday to come round and get last weeks horror show out of my system. So let's be positive, as we have played some great stuff this year. We just need to get back to the mentality we had in December, January and most of February. Turn up, enjoy seeing friends old and new, play as a team, giving everything for each other on the field and then, possibly, a beer or two afterwards in good company. Maybe I am a bit simple but that seems to me like a recipe for enjoyment..............
Up the Accies.
