By Jon Hanna
Bright start goes pale as phoenix are slayed by red star
Phoenix - 3 Red Star - 8A mildish February morning saw the phoenix line up:
Jo P, Fred, Dens, Wall, Treen; Adam Lucas, Jon Selbie, miles, Rob; james Bradley and JH up top
A good warm up, which for the first time saw the entire squad there on time and doing ball drills and the now famous hopping, skipping and jumping meant we were ready for battle from the off, after an inspirational and fiery speech from our great leader.
And that all made for a great start by the men in maroon and black, solid banks of defense and midfield and some great pressing from lucas and bradley in particular put their back 4 under pressure meaning JH was able to nick the ball, turn and shoot low into the far corner for an early lead. This is a lesson we should remember – most teams (the 2 gower teams are somewhat of an exception) don’t play their best ballers at the back, and we should take more advantage of that…
Which we did again shortly, some good work down both flanks, where both gower fullbacks looked in promising form, led to the ball dropping from the front men to lucas’s mate coming off his wing to put the ball into the net for 2-0.
The Red Stars did look a bit shell shocked, but for the next 15 minutes they oscillated between severly pressurising us, and fighing amongst themselves, this boiled over somewhat when Dens snr launched some kind of bruce lee scissor kick at their best player, to which the opposition made their views felt, and led to a yellow card from each team…
Further aggravations came and went as Miles kicked the ball to their sub when it had gone off, and got booked, and Elliot dared to flag for offside. However, just as Gower started to feel under the cosh, a bit of luck/magic meant JH stole the ball near the half way line and advanced quite unopposed to smash it in off the keeper from a tight angle. 3-1 and the pendulum swang back in to our favour…
Half time meant a chance to catch our breath, welcome Dens senior and have some more words of wisdom. Sadly they fell on deaf ears as after the first five minutes a combination of individual errors, lack of heart/fight, a good opposition who became more and more convinced of their superiority meant that we quickly shipped 4 goals within the space of about 10 minutes. In all fairness, man for man they looked better than us, and as their confidence started to grow some of their later goals demonstrated their class, as well as their hunger and confidence – both of which comparatively receeded for the phoenix as the game progressed.
Two further hanna goals were disallowed for offside, both of which may have been linked to their sub/linesman’s desire to repay Elliot’s – by now on in place of our deflated captain - percieved over enthusiastic flagging… but nonetheless Gower looked well beaten by the hour mark. Lucas alone stood tall amongst his fallen comrades as RS scored a couple more, and for this he deserves credit (and the mom award). Otherwise there are very clear lessons which need to be learnt by the phoenix.
Final score 6-3(?)
1. We can compete at this level, but only if we keep our heads, even when all around are losing theirs
2. When we play the good teams in particular, it is more important what we do without the ball than with. Too often when we are tired we suddenly get bursts of energy when we have the ball, those bursts would be better utilised pressing your opponents and making runs off the ball.
3. When we looked really good – it was when we defended and pressed aggressively, all over the park – if we had of kept that up the result might have looked different
4. Crucially, negativity and biting each other may work in some circumstances or for some people, but simple emotional intelligence would suggest it does not work for all, or even most. We need to positively encourage each other, not moan – even when things are going badly or when we are under pressure – confidence in each other breeds confidence in ourselves. Ultimately we will stand or fall not by an individual error, goal or even result but by the bonds we make, game by game with each other – let us focus on that, and on being clear how we want to play, and how we want to work with each other.
5. In defense – lets just clear the ball at any and every opportunity – aggressive defending please!
