Building momentum

A very tough loss to take - conceding a winning goal in the last 30 seconds. Holcombe were an excellent team, unbeaten and certainly the strongest from an organised outfit point of view (with their own non-playing coach) with a clear and effective pattern of play. 1-0 down at half time but in truth we could of gone in 2 or 3 down. Martin Rohan, guesting as our sideline coach made a big difference, reshaping us at half time to cut out their preferred pattern of play through the right hand channel. We conceded another goal but then started coming back strongly.

We retained the ball better and two cracking reverse stick finishes from Freddie Hoare & Max Moen saw us restore parity. Zach Olette & Sam Judge are beginning to play more minutes in midfield are making significant gains with their overall contribution to the team. Another youngster Seb Wright is retaining the ball better up front and always looks dangerous on the break. We are a match for anyone when we play well and the current run of games against the top 4 sides in our league have all been very close.

What to work on next ? All 3 goals conceded were direct short corners so we need to stop giving them away and to defend them better. We need to put away more of our chances but this will come if we remain patient but also composed when having to shoot under pressure. We need to work on our fitness so that we do not fade in the last 5-10 minutes and individuals must take responsibility for this.

The great news is that we get to play all of these sides again, we will learn from our experiences...