5TH XI 1 - 6 VS NORSEMEN 7TH (A) SAL

Heavy defeat but all not lost.
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First, thanks need to go to Dean and the players that helped the 5s out on Saturday.
So, the first league game has come and gone 3 points lost and minus 5 goals, but all is not that bad as surely, we will improve. The squad will get better, we will have more consistency and we will play much better as the season goes on.

Having said that at times on Saturday we played some good football. The day didn’t start too well with one player not turning up at all and one running late.

We set ourselves up as a make shift 4-4-2 and we worked well as a team against a Norsemen side that have played together for a while.

Norsemen where pressing for an early goal, and we were dealing with their attacks the midfield and back four were working well so their first goal was a bit of a kick in the teeth.
Norsemen had a corner which was cleared to the edge of Vamps box and it fell to a Norsemen player who hit a volley that any other week would have been blocked or it would have flown high or wide.

We had our chances with the midfield and front two linking well and Luke and Jay both had the Norsemen defence on the back foot the only thing missing at times was the final shot we need to start getting more shots away.

Then came the Norsemen second goal just a simple mistake at the back and Norsemen are 2 nil up.

Even though it looked like a long afternoon was ahead of us the lads dug deep and still tried to play as a team we were still pressing to get our first goal of the season and at this stage of the half I think we was evenly matched with Norsemen another breakaway from the quick front two which resulted in a free kick for the vamps on the edge of the Norsemen box.

John Burke who was running late was determined to have this free kick which I have to say he took very well as it curled into the back of the net YES game on.

At half time team talk was all very positive and encouraging the goal had given the players a lift can we improve on the first half performance.

Sometimes in football, Games can be one sided because the opposition are that good. Norsemen played well don’t get me wrong they weren’t that good, but we did collapse as a side due to not playing together and fitness. Unfortunately, these two reasons put a downer on the first half efforts of the lads and hit the confidence and team play at times.

After the game every player took the loss hard, but they must get and accept that you can still play well and not win but also, they have to learn that you have to play as a team for 90 plus minutes.

Was 6-1 a deserved loss probably not but unfortunately the league table will show that it is.