Round 6 2008 - Doncaster

A cold and foggy morning at Anderson Park for our match against Doncaster. The boys trained very well on Friday night and were ready for a strong challenge. The game started with Doncaster pressing us in their attacking half. However it was interesting to note that although Doncaster initially tried hard to attack, they had 4 defenders camped in our 18 yard box ?

Eventually we managed to wrestle control of the ball and it was not long before we managed our first conversion, courtesy of Aaron D (see you do have a right foot !). This gave our boys an extra lift and we then started to control the game with good passing and lots of movement into space.

Doncaster were persistent at the ball, but we had their measure and we manned up well. Our midfielders (Ben, Jesse, Nick) were winning the hard balls and our wide players (Sam & Aaron D) were providing lots of options. However our endeavour in front of goal was frustrated by rushed shots and poor communication. As such a number of good chances went begging in the first half that we should have easily converted.

We did manage to put another 2 goals past the Doncaster Keeper before halftime, courtesy of Jesse and Alex. The latter goal was the result of a well executed free kick from about 25 yards out, with the ball looping over the Keepers flapping arms.

3 nil at half time and we looked primed for a solid second half and hopefully a few more goals for our tally. Stackie was reasonably happy with the boys, but he wanted to hear more talking amongst the group. In his words..."I can't shut you up at training but you could hear a pin drop on Sunday mornings..." He also wanted the boys to respect the team rule and not turn unless told to do so by another player.

The 2nd half saw us once again control the tempo of the game. Doncaster managed the occasional long ball out of defence but our defenders (Bob, Jordan, Paul & Michael) had little difficulty in stopping any forward movement from Doncaster. Kosmo, who had played very well at Left Back in the first half, was now wearing the #1 Jersey in Goal. We would not see him again until after the final whistle, where he appeared to shake hands with the opposition.

For all of our efforts in the 2nd half, we were unable to finish effectively when given the chance. Aaron S, Charlie and Johnny were doing some good work wide of the box, but we missed many chances and were frustrated by Doncaster's flooding of the goal mouth. As it turned out our 4th goal was probably the best of the day with Nick crossing a ball into the box from the right wing, Michael was in perfect position and he made no mistake with a clinical header that took advantage of the Doncaster Keeper being off his line.

So another convincing win for the lads, but we really need to work harder in and around the box so that we convert more of our chances. In other games today we were fortunate that our lead at the top of the table has been maintained. As we all know each match begins at nil all, so we must listen to Stackie and put into practice what we learn at training during the week.