Disappointing Cup Defeat

Autumn had certainly arrived on a wet Saturday with Hartletts' goal mouths needing forking to drain the pools of overnight rain. However, the rest of the pitch was decent enough for Hook to play football and look to make a mark on the same Rushmoor opposition as last week...

Back to a 2-4-2 formation, to aim to control the midfield, it was absolute domination in the first half, as the speed of Hook's football ensured they had Rushmoor's backs against the wall - no surprise that Hook took the lead. The only surprise was that it wasn't a much bigger scoreline at the break.

During the last 5 minutes (or so) of the first half, there were some worrying signs that Hook's performance would descend to the same nervous, panicky play that had enveloped them in the last couple of weeks.

At the break, the manager encouraged the boys to keep playing the way they had been, take the positives that, although they had only scored 1 goal, they were creating so many chances, and t ensure they didn't rush there play.

Unfortunately, yet again, the second half opponents' performance reverted to a lot of direct play that Hook seem to find difficult to deal with. A number of players seemed to rush their passes, get in each others' way, and there were an unusually high number of miss-kicks, and miss-timed clearance attempts. Still the need to close the opposition down, in periods like this, eludes the team all too often.

There were a good number of positives to take from the game; the dominance in the first half was great, the number of players being played in for shooting opportunities was great, the calmness shown to pass when no time to shoot, or shoot when there was time was great, and the defensive cover from some of the players was great.

Although, the players really do need to ensure they keep on top of the simple things... move away from each other when in possession, so as not to get in each others' ways AND to offer a pass more than 2 metres away; secure the ball before attempting the pass (too often passes went to the opposition); play simple passes. All of this did not help Hook's cause today.

MoM went to T R today - so many times he covered so well, stopping at least 4 certain goals. His overall defensive work was great and he also played the ball out wide (as asked for by the manager) on numerous occasions that often set up a counter-attack.