From Steve, 1st Team Manager
THERE’S A MAN I MEET – WALKS UP OUR STREET,
HE’S A WORKER FOR THE COUNCIL – HAS BEEN 20 YEARS,
AND HE TAKES NO LIP OF NOBODY, AND PICKS LITTER OFF THE GUTTER,
AND HE PUTS IT IN A BAG, AND HE NEVER THINKS TO MUTTER,
AND HE PACKS HIS LUNCH IN A SUNBLEST BAG, AND THE CHILDREN CALL HIM BOGEY,
HE NEVER LETS ON, BUT I KNOW BECAUSE HE ONCE TOLD ME,
HE LET ME INTO A SECRET ABOUT THE MONEY IN HIS KITTY,
HE’S GOIN’ TO BUY A DINGUY, AND HE’S GONNA CALL HER DIGNITY’
(‘Dignity’ by Deacon Blue).
Hi Readers, as per what I said last week, you can be happier in defeat than you are in victory. And so it was today. Pennington 2 Uppermill 0.
PFC are second in the table and look very good for promotion in my view. But, little Uppermill pushed them very hard today. Our first half showed the potential and the capability to improve.
at half time. UFC were, if I may say, the better team in that first 45 minutes. We played with brains and talent. Yet again, our unwillingness to shoot came back to haunt us. Several attacking moves were thwarted by our persistent fear of shooting.
The second half started brightly and we could/should have been 1-0 up when a sublime Sam Cunliffe cross was not given the credit it deserved when the UFC team failed to connect with it. Within ten minutes we lost centre back Matty Fletcher to injury, and that proved to be a game changer. Pennington then went into overdrive and scored two quick goals. To be fair, they could have scored more as Uppermill sank into disarray. We had a dreadful 15 minutes and the home team showed their talent by carving us open on several occasions.
We recovered to make the game competitive, but, in truth, never recaptured the guile and energy of the first half. In the end, PFC deserved their win, no question of that. Good shout for promotion.
Our first half was excellent. I took away everything I had hoped to leave with. Again, a lot learnt. That was progress. If PFC are promotion material (and they are) we were only inches behind them. I will take that in our stage of development. We are punching above our weight. As poor as we were last week, we got the basics right this week: players punctual, excellent warm up, mindset in place.
Still lots to learn, and we need to recognise that fine line between challenging a team mate to improve, and simply abusing people. The former is great, the latter just exhausts people.
It becomes increasingly obvious that we need to help the individual. There are young players in the squad who need 1-to-1 care and help. We are failing the players by not doing so. The players cannot give any more in effort. Not on today’s showing. But we, as coaches, need to show a lot more care and creativity with the individual.
An encouraging performance. Exemplary first half. Maybe a full 90 minutes is around the corner? We are in development and we (especially me) need to show some patience.
Proud of the efforts today guys, and very well done to Pennington: a well managed, friendly and proper football club. I lost count of the number of people buzzing about making PFC work. They show the ambition and organisation I hope we can achieve. Best warm up of the season we have seen by a long way!
Cheers
Steve