Pub Team to Manager’s Dream Part 29 – Season 4 Kicks Off

After managing to retain all of our best players and most of our players generally for the first time, we were in a great position going into the fourth season and were ready to take the Mid Sussex League Division 7 by storm. But first we had to make a good job of the preseason in order to perfect the preparations…No massive fixtures in the preseason this year as we discovered last season that the club doesn’t benefit financially so it isn’t worth decreasing the players morale with preseason losses. However, none of the matches were against lower reputation opposition so the results that you can see above made for quite a pleasing preseason all in all.

So we did go into the new season in high spirits and full of confidence, and it certainly showed with the results impressing until Mid Sussex League Division 7 Match day 10.

A few matches in focus:

vs. East Grinstead Mavericks: We played very poorly and it was only a mater of time before we conceded, which eventually happened just before half time. My half time team talk was very stern and made the players fully aware of their disappointing performance.  Performance improved slightly but it took until the 74th minute for Phil Smith to equalize after coming on for the injured Dan Perry. Phil Smith then also got injured and with no strikers left on the bench I had to bring on a CD and switch to a 5-4-1 formation. Just as the forced substitution and tactical change takes place, Jayden Antwi-Nyame gives us the lead to complete the comeback. Although the determination and grit shown to get back into the match was impressive, the players performance will need to be much better for the other matches this season.

vs. Bolney Rovers: A very scrappy first half with a lot of chances from goal mouth scrambles and the teams went in at half time with the score at 0-0. We took the lead from almost the only good move of the match, with Antwi-Nyame finishing a well worked move and early cross with good back post header. He doubles up after unselfish play from Dan Perry to square him the ball and leave him with a easy finish into an empty goal, but Antwi-Nyame didn’t watch his line and the goal was ruled out for offside. It was an even game overall and we only deserved the win because of the quality of the one move that created our goal.

So again we are sitting top of the table after the first half of the season and despite the two focus matches, which I chose for interest sake, we are playing well to go along with it. Next time we will be powering on with the second half of season 4 so I hope you check in to see how we get on…