A tight game finished with honours even with a goal from a penalty at
both ends.
The hot weather stifled much of our football in the first 40.
Liverpool sat deep seemingly intent on not conceding. Nonetheless,
we did create several good chances but were unable to convert any.
Liverpool rarely pushed on and as I recall didn't trouble our goal
in the first half. 0-0 at half time.
We started the second half strongly and again created a couple of
good chances to no avail. We also had what appeared to be a
legitimate goal disallowed Liverpool then made a rare foray into our
half and won a penalty. We were caught out following a corner; our
central midfielders were out of position and no one covered for
them. That allowed Liverpool to make their way up the park without
any pressure. Their striker got into our box and went down easily
for the pen. 1-0 to Liverpool with 20 minutes to go. We dug deep
and pushed on. With about 10 minutes left, we won a penalty of our
own which was duly converted by Terry Harris. No more major goal
mouth action and 1-1 was how it ended.
It seemed to me as if Liverpool came looking for a draw today. They
had only one shot at goal all game and defended very deep with many
people behind the ball. For our part, we didn't play the football
we normally would today. I'm not sure if the weather was a factor
but it certainly was hot. We gave the ball away too easily and
didn't create as many chances as we normally would. Again, we had a
couple of good opportunities to score but didn't take them.
Ultimately, this cost us when Liverpool got their goal. But full
credit to the team for having the desire to dig deep when it mattered
and get an equaliser.
We should take positives from our performance in the last twenty
minutes. Our fitness was better than it has been much of the season
and we looked by far the stronger team in the last 30. Additionally,
we should take a lot of confidence from the match. One of the so-
called 'top teams' came and seemingly played for a draw. We limited
them to a single shot on goal and created several good chances of our
own despite not playing anywhere near as well as we could. We should
go into every other match we play fully expecting to win.
Next week we face the Bar Flies. These are a somewhat unknown
quantity having a largely new squad for this season and they have won
at least one or two games already this season. I'm a little
concerned that we won't have enough players available for next week:
6 players have already notified my that they'll be unavailable. If
you can be available please let me know ASAP. Additionally, please
get yourself along to training on Thursday. We had twelve there last
week. Our session is great for fitness and building our technique in
retaining possession. As always, regular attendance at training is a
factor in selection. I look forward to seeing you there.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment