Captain's crack Carlingford Celtic - Bar Santiago

On days like yesterday we have a saying which goes something like "the less said the better". But there were so many negative factors that all the issues need to be addressed.

1st half was very tight with both teams taking careful steps not to concede a goal. We kept the ball well and played the simple passes which I've been constantly asking us to do during training sessions and matches. We got the goal and we went ahead but we never really took the game by the scruff of the neck, we became slack in defence and the cover from the midfield and forward was very poor. Lack of communication on many occasions both offence and defence.

2nd half was a reflection of the 1st half after we had scored our goal. There was no desire or urgency to win the game from the 1st minute to the last or to when we found ourselves losing. By urgency I'm talking about little things like when we have throwins or corners with people just taking a steady stroll or a gentle jog to the ball or when going forward being too casual on the ball. The only positive I took from the game was the last 5 minutes when everybody who was on the pitch ran their socks off fighting for the ball and pressurising. I'd like to see this from the very 1st minute to the last with people showing a bit of agression and making tackles. Credit to Pablo for going in goal, he pulled off some great saves and if it wasn't for him it could have been more than 3. Our shooting was disappointing as well.

We also need to change the way we go about pre kickoff. Instead of everybody pissing about having shots at goal, how about we work on warming up and stretching and doing a bit of passing to feet and control. Ok it all sounds very professional but with the team and players we've got then we shouldn't be playing as bad as yesterday.

Darren made a good point by saying that we became too predictable with our attacks and mentioned that we need to work on more strategies going forward which I completely agree with.

We've moved down a place now as a result of yesterday's loss so it's up to us now to bounce back next weekend against gasteiz river and learn from our mistakes.

If anyone has any feedback on my comments then post it or if anyone has an opinion then post it. Just from reading my comments isn't doing much for team morale. Everybody having their opinion and posting it is equally as important as mine.

Valid points put forward by the cap.

My shout from the bench:

1. We lacked someone up front who would have been able to hold the ball up which would have given us that other option mentioned by Darren. Unfortunately (and fortunately) Pablo, the obvious candidate, was in goal.

2. As in some other games we allowed a man to overlap the defence, recieve a pass, draw one or two players to him which allowed a pass back into an empty box.

3. We lost because our 'bad phase' lasted too long, we got frustrated about the ref and when we finally got our intensity back it was too late to get back the goals (perhaps we should have called a time out after their second goal).

Well, gonna have a spot of lunch. Taraa.