Our first loss in the league but I think it was one we needed. I think some of our cockiness will disappear and never come back after this heavy defeat.
I don't think anyone had a good game today. At times I felt really annoyed with some of the players attitudes as the game went on, but I think that's how people are in sport teams when they are losing badly for the first time.
One thing I had to mention was the defeatist attitude of some of our players had in the second half. I know we were losing by a big margin then, but we should keep battling till the end to make sure we gave them a tough match, But unfortunately some just got frustrated, angry and even just gave up and messed around with the girls that I noticed. You wouldn't do it in a tight game or one that we were winning in, you know who you are.
However, I do think a few players had their good bits. Three players that I will mention in particular are Simon, Juggernaut and Shane. Simon managed to pull off some top saves to not make the score even worse for us as we are now back to zero goal difference. I think my man-of-the-match from our team is Juggernaut. He looked so much better then I last saw him. He was putting in stick checks I never thought he could do and put in a lot of body checks, more then he usually does. You have definitely stepped up a gear or two Juggs.
Finally, the star of the show Mr. Shane 'Rat' Hall. He was one the hardest workers on the pitch today, which included a terrific goal to make him the leading fresher in goals scored. Unfortunately his "outburst" at one of the Trent players would be the talking point of his performance today. I feel it's a shame that some of our players have reacted badly to checks this season, because I feel that big checks are part of the game. If you are going to get checked, make sure you hit them back harder, and legally of course, no matter if theirs was illegal.
One player that I felt really sorry for was Pingu who hit the post AGAIN! and had a great chance in the crease but didn't manage to pull off his quick-stick attempt.
I hope I'm not being a big head here but I want to comment about my game, which I don't think I have done before these blogs. I can't remember if I have been badly criticised in a match before until this one which felt very alien to me. All I will say is that I do agree that my huge clearances up field did look pointless at times. But a lot of attackers I noticed weren't running to the pass which felt as if my efforts weren't being appreciated. If you did run to the pass then I apologise.
I was happy that at least one clearance went to someone's stick without bouncing.
I felt it was necessary to do a lot of this as I knew we would get a lot of pressure and doing that felt the most sensible thing. I will agree that some of them were pointless as a few players were wide open for a pass in midfield. I will try and be more aware next time. One final thing I will apologise to is my mini-celebration after breaking the guy's stick. I shouldn't have done that and it was not like me at all, but I'm glad I managed to break someone's stick that wasn't in my hands.
My final mention has to go Nottingham trent. I have to take my hat off to them as they were a top side. They had some terrific players and they totally deserve promotion, if they keep winning of course.
Overall, it was just a bad day at the office and I hope we can react well to this heavy loss. It will be interesting now to see at how dedicated are squad will be as there is now a real reason to improve both in fitness and in general lacrosse ability. As much as I hate fitness I will definitely take part as I know my fitness is the worst part of my game.