66 Open With A Draw

<p class="MsoPlainText" style="text-align: justify; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">Match Thoughts

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<p class="MsoPlainText" style="text-align: justify; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">I usually send my thoughts out on Sunday, but I thought I would sit on it for a while and be more considered than reactive. I think if we were offered a 1-1 draw before the game we would happily have accepted that. Although the &lsquo;star player&rsquo; has moved on from Rye they are still a decent team and I don&rsquo;t think they will loose many home games on what is a small pitch that they are clearly comfortable playing on.

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<p class="MsoPlainText" style="text-align: justify; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">Certainly 4 or 5 times in the first half&nbsp; we did cut them to pieces with some slick one touch passing which was great to watch and exactly what we are trying to achieve. I think in the second half we got crowded out of the game, the ball started going up in the air, we stopped passing from the back and started hoofing it forward making it hard for the midfield and strikers to control the ball and create anything.

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<p class="MsoPlainText" style="text-align: justify; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">We need to understand that often when the ball gets &lsquo;hoofed&rsquo; out from the back, it becomes a 50/50 situation and can come straight back at us. When we passed the ball out from the back in the first half we looked much more assured and in control of what we were doing. The coaches are trying to encourage the boys to pass it out all the time, the more often they do it, the more proficient they will come, so lets not panic if it goes wrong. We believe it&rsquo;s the right thing to do and we want the boys to persevere with this, short term we will make errors, but long term (as our sport continues to becomes less physical) passing and&nbsp; build up play will become more important. It will help the boys develop into better players and hopefully bring better results. I think a lot of the teams we admire&nbsp; Barcelona, Arsenal, Swansea, play this way. Now Liverpool are adopting this as well.

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<p class="MsoPlainText" style="text-align: justify; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">The high spots of the game were obviously the goal, well taken by Ryan and scored as a result of a lovely passing move with Jack and Robbie with the ball on the floor. I thought the two new lads had great first games James was exceptional in the first half, his pace and commitment down the line gave us a new dimension and he will only improve as he plays more competitive football. I thought that Toby came into his own much more in the second half and gave a very tenacious performance really trying to drive the team forward.

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<p class="MsoPlainText" style="text-align: justify; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">But for a couple of missed chances we would have won the game, and as it was our first 11 a side game of the season I thought we did well. We will spend 5-10 mins positively reviewing the game with the boys at the next training session.

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<p class="MsoPlainText" style="text-align: justify; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">As always everyone's comments and views are welcome.

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<p class="MsoPlainText" style="text-align: justify; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">See you all on Thursday

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<p class="MsoPlainText" style="text-align: justify; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">Andy.