A great win and another top performance against East Anglia. During the season I think are win away at UEA was are best performance of the season, but today's win definitely challenges it.
It was our lowest score of the season, but that does not mean that it was not a brilliant performance. It was a great effort by everyone.
With the Varsity team sorted, it seems we are slowly getting good relations with everyone. We now know when to sub at the right times, where to go on the field and even know how to play in positions we are not used to.
Despite the women's team not supporting us as usual, it was good to see some of the players W.A.G's come out and watch us instead. Another supporter was Drysdale Snr. who made a return appearance to the sidelines, even with a full-time brew as always for our vice-captain.
Back to the match and I will start with our latest cripple Simon Hart. A terrific performance as always. Even having to miss a game during the week, you still have that terrific shot stopping ability that everyone loves.
For the defence, it was one sloppy mistake short of perfection. We seemed to feel like a unit for the first time in a while. We marked players really well and surprisingly we even did some sliding which we seem to never do in match situations. I know I did a few times but kept forgetting to shout slide which I was annoyed about. I think clearing was good and very fast which is very important.
As for my game I was generally happy with it. I was a bit annoyed I cleared the ball too quickly a few times which meant I did not see everyone on the pitch that was free. But I did seem to clear it properly the rest of the time which gives me confidence going into the big games with Nottingham Trent and Keele.
Midfield worked hard as usual but it seemed a hard day as we did not have enough subs as we need for our big pitch.
Marcus' pace seemed to make up for it. He was once again leaving the opponents in amazement. The attacker I was marking for most of the game thought he had springs inside his boots. I did think he would sneak a hat-trick of man-of-the-matches, but it went to Captain Fresher. That amazingly means we have our first fresher being man-of-the-match for a men's game this year. A great achievement and one that I'm surprised did not happen sooner.
Another thing that surprised me today was Shane. I was very impressed throughout. It was another solid day for 'The Rat', he was passing well, always fighting for ground balls, winning almost every face and basically running his back-side off like he always does. But only getting one penalty and getting involved in a little scuffle which he did not even start impressed me the most. But actually if it wasn't for Dimi basically raping him on the field then it could have been round two for Shane's newly found boxing career. I would like a lot more of that 'rattitude' between now and the rest of the season, but with goals as well as you did not manage to score past East Anglia this season.
I must also mention the clever subbing by Dimi and Matt Meehan during the whole game, just so we could get an extra d-pole on the field when we were defending.
And finally onto attack who seemed to be quiet today in terms of goals and shots. It might have just been UEA's tight marking but no one seemed to get free from their defenders which means not a lot of risky passes to create shots on goal. But what you lacked in shots seemed to be made up in some runs back defending which surprised me and the rest of the back line. At one point I saw Pingu intercept a pass in our own fan and started to sprint it up the field with Sam and Nathan running with him. I thought I must be going mad, but in the end I was so happy a lot of the pure attackers realised that our middie's could not handle the constant running so I was glad to see that a lot. This could be a new part of our game that could help us win Varsity which is now only 25 days away.
A final mention for our game has to be the boat race, as we seemed to have created something so deadly for the 'dick of the days' and I hope it is used for a very long time so that other Uni's keep gasping at being told what to do for it.
Now for the first time in a very long time I am going to be blogging on a match our women's team played in. They have managed to organise a friendly against a side that is a good starting block for our new breed of players.
As I did not attend the match I have had to get details from the players and it sounded like it was great learning experience for them.
Despite the 8-1 loss, they were either tied or only a couple of goals off them almost the entire game. It sounded like exhaustion let Warwick in to get a flurry of goals. But when you send nine players there and having to borrow three of Warwick's players, it did not really help on the matter.
But ignoring that, I am really proud of the girls as they have had to battle with week after week of training sessions with very little to work on, due to a lack of numbers.
It seemed that everyone is saying that Suzi was the start of the show and deserved getting women-of-the-match. From what I have seen of Suzi in mixed, I truly think we have a great player in the making and I am glad to hear it is being seen in women's as well as mixed. As for the goalscorer I honestly did not think it would be Hayley, which is a good thing as players are surprising me, so keep it up. All in all it sounded like a successful day and I hope you get more friendlies before the summer just to get some experience before trying to make another stab and fulfilling a full season in the BUCS league.
It was our lowest score of the season, but that does not mean that it was not a brilliant performance. It was a great effort by everyone.
With the Varsity team sorted, it seems we are slowly getting good relations with everyone. We now know when to sub at the right times, where to go on the field and even know how to play in positions we are not used to.
Despite the women's team not supporting us as usual, it was good to see some of the players W.A.G's come out and watch us instead. Another supporter was Drysdale Snr. who made a return appearance to the sidelines, even with a full-time brew as always for our vice-captain.
Back to the match and I will start with our latest cripple Simon Hart. A terrific performance as always. Even having to miss a game during the week, you still have that terrific shot stopping ability that everyone loves.
For the defence, it was one sloppy mistake short of perfection. We seemed to feel like a unit for the first time in a while. We marked players really well and surprisingly we even did some sliding which we seem to never do in match situations. I know I did a few times but kept forgetting to shout slide which I was annoyed about. I think clearing was good and very fast which is very important.
As for my game I was generally happy with it. I was a bit annoyed I cleared the ball too quickly a few times which meant I did not see everyone on the pitch that was free. But I did seem to clear it properly the rest of the time which gives me confidence going into the big games with Nottingham Trent and Keele.
Midfield worked hard as usual but it seemed a hard day as we did not have enough subs as we need for our big pitch.
Marcus' pace seemed to make up for it. He was once again leaving the opponents in amazement. The attacker I was marking for most of the game thought he had springs inside his boots. I did think he would sneak a hat-trick of man-of-the-matches, but it went to Captain Fresher. That amazingly means we have our first fresher being man-of-the-match for a men's game this year. A great achievement and one that I'm surprised did not happen sooner.
Another thing that surprised me today was Shane. I was very impressed throughout. It was another solid day for 'The Rat', he was passing well, always fighting for ground balls, winning almost every face and basically running his back-side off like he always does. But only getting one penalty and getting involved in a little scuffle which he did not even start impressed me the most. But actually if it wasn't for Dimi basically raping him on the field then it could have been round two for Shane's newly found boxing career. I would like a lot more of that 'rattitude' between now and the rest of the season, but with goals as well as you did not manage to score past East Anglia this season.
I must also mention the clever subbing by Dimi and Matt Meehan during the whole game, just so we could get an extra d-pole on the field when we were defending.
And finally onto attack who seemed to be quiet today in terms of goals and shots. It might have just been UEA's tight marking but no one seemed to get free from their defenders which means not a lot of risky passes to create shots on goal. But what you lacked in shots seemed to be made up in some runs back defending which surprised me and the rest of the back line. At one point I saw Pingu intercept a pass in our own fan and started to sprint it up the field with Sam and Nathan running with him. I thought I must be going mad, but in the end I was so happy a lot of the pure attackers realised that our middie's could not handle the constant running so I was glad to see that a lot. This could be a new part of our game that could help us win Varsity which is now only 25 days away.
A final mention for our game has to be the boat race, as we seemed to have created something so deadly for the 'dick of the days' and I hope it is used for a very long time so that other Uni's keep gasping at being told what to do for it.
Now for the first time in a very long time I am going to be blogging on a match our women's team played in. They have managed to organise a friendly against a side that is a good starting block for our new breed of players.
As I did not attend the match I have had to get details from the players and it sounded like it was great learning experience for them.
Despite the 8-1 loss, they were either tied or only a couple of goals off them almost the entire game. It sounded like exhaustion let Warwick in to get a flurry of goals. But when you send nine players there and having to borrow three of Warwick's players, it did not really help on the matter.
But ignoring that, I am really proud of the girls as they have had to battle with week after week of training sessions with very little to work on, due to a lack of numbers.
It seemed that everyone is saying that Suzi was the start of the show and deserved getting women-of-the-match. From what I have seen of Suzi in mixed, I truly think we have a great player in the making and I am glad to hear it is being seen in women's as well as mixed. As for the goalscorer I honestly did not think it would be Hayley, which is a good thing as players are surprising me, so keep it up. All in all it sounded like a successful day and I hope you get more friendlies before the summer just to get some experience before trying to make another stab and fulfilling a full season in the BUCS league.