[Spartak] Friendly at Donoghmore

At the risk of irritating all my readers (yes, all four of you) who do not like football, I have decided to briefly summarise all the games I play this season, so that I will have a record for posterity.

Our first match of the season was last night. We lost 3-0. We were poor, and I did not have a great game. I was not bad, but I feel like I did not perform as well as I should be. I have set my self a high performance standard for this coming season.

We lined out in a 4-4-2: Foley, D. O'Connell, D. Keane, D. Mohan, R. Benson, W. O'Connell, M. Cooney, S. Mongey, C. Reid, D. MacAuley, A. Dawson. Subs: K. O'Toole, A. Doran, M. Greene, G. Byrne.

A lot of us had not really played together, and we were working in a new system. It is still no excuse really. Donoghmore are not a great side and are playing to a relatively low standard, though they have a few decent players.

I was frustrated by a lot of things we did. Despite some of us trying to keep it on the deck, the ball went up in the air a lot and our forward line lacked any real penetration. The two O'Connell's had fine games again, with Will getting behind their defense on a few occassions.

Our new manager wants us to play it out from the back more, and we are not used to it. We were caught a few times by this, and it cost us a couple of goals. The fact that we were 3-0 down by halftime speaks volumes for our performance in the first half.

As for my game, I was not happy. My touch was off and the ball caught beneath me too much. I need to get it away from me with a good first touch, and spread the play. I did not do that. Defensively, I felt I did okay, tracking my men and winning a lot in the air.

As a whole though, our team lacks bite. I seemed to be the only person getting physical with the opposition, and imposing myself on them. We need much more bite, especially in the middle.

To make matters worse, we had a number of first teamers due to a large number of cry-offs the day of the game. None of them were strongly established first teamers, but it is still a cause for concern.

I also feel like we need a much stronger presence up front. Frank McNamee is still a few months off playing and we do not have another player like him. Our forwards are dispossessed too easily. Colm Delaney, missing last night, is better at holding things up than Donal (a first teamers) so hopefully this will improve.

On a final note, our fitness showed last night. The opposition faded badly towards the end and we finished much stronger, despite never really causing their defense a lot of problems.

Overall, I am down about it. I thought the team's performance would be much better, and I felt I could have played better. There is still a lot of work to be done for our team to be a success.