8th game, 8 goals,

This game was about the future. We'd made a promise to ourselves that this was about the building blocks for the future. This wasn't a results driven set up. We spoke before the game about style, technique and control, to go along with the effort which has reached an acceptable level over recent weeks. The effort level that all successful teams deliver.

From the first game of the season the boys have raised the bar continuously, almost game by game, they've been set the challenge to not drop below it, and the certainly didn't this week.

It has to be said that 8-1 is a fantastic scoreline, but to be honest the score is much less important than the performance, which was an encouraging one.

Last week we lost, to SCR who are currently top of the league, but the performance was also very good, however we lacked the belief last week, in addition to conceding an early sloppy goal which set us back.

This week we had two missed opportunities and Luca had an excellent 20+ yard effort bounce off the top of the upright by the time we'd conceded last week.

So we'd learned.

We are learning at a very fast rate, it's a credit to the boys. To go from no real structure to their play and training, to having to play under instruction and training with conditions in 3 months with new players is a real credit to them. The bad news is it just gets harder from now on in.

We don't want to see safe boring players who aren't prepared to take risks, challenge themselves and make mistakes along the way. We want effort, and a cavalier approach to becoming stylish, players who look like they enjoy what they and each other do.

We used a changing room and tactics board for the first time, we discussed positions regarding, kick offs, goal kicks, corners for and against. all in fifteen minutes. Hats off to them.

Also accepting that to play well you may make mistakes, and just to cope with them. They did that well.

Credit to Kingston, I don't think they gave up at all, well the players didn't. The accusations of bent referees and time wasting at 6-1 tells me that the assistant manager had.
For the record the referee was excellent, also he awarded the majority of free kicks to kingston, however if you really battle for the ball, you will concede free kicks on occasion. None of them were for anything other than hustling for the ball which is acceptable, I will never want to see foul play or unsporting behaviour demonstrated.

So Goals from Joe, Joe, Frankie, Asa, Naz, Yusuf, Joe and Yusuf were great. The play of the day was Joe's second goal, a real team effort. Naz's free kick was sublime. Joe goes into our collection of (now 4) who have hat tricks.

Which leaves me to the final thoughts. We also spoke before the game about technique, the training has emphasized holding the ball, being courageous enough to be calm in possession, choosing the right pass at the right time. Once effort has been achieved its all about the technique. Courage comes in many forms, to us tho there are two main forms. Primarily its having the courage to work hard and battle for your team. Then it's the courage to play, to stay calm when under pressure, to keep move and play the ball when people are trying their hardest to get it off you.
The first touch, the weight of pass, keeping calm. All very important. It was displayed all over the park, but none more so than our man of the match.
The aim now is to maintain this level, but wight he fantastic support they receive that can be achieved.

Man of the match
Luca Osborne, cool and courageous.