Going seven games unbeaten and sitting second in the table
gives you the belief that you are capable of a good run in the league cup, and
this was definitely something that everyone in the Accies camp was keen to turn
into a reality. However, the fact that
over three games we have only beaten Deportivo (on aggregate) by two goals
suggests that we tend to let them drag us down to their level. That was definitely the case in this 1st
round match, and there was a general sense of relief rather than jubilation
following the full-time whistle, which signalled our progression into the
quarter finals.
The squad was not at its strongest, and such was the
unavailability that Sharpy had to pull on his boots to fill the subs
bench. Harry – originally thought to be injured
and unavailable – did manage to drag himself off his sick bed to be available
in the second half, which did help to ease the pressure on an unfamiliar
(although still very capable) central midfield which had very little backup.
Subs: Blakey, Luke, Sharpy, Harry
You could blame the boggy pitch for making it really
difficult to play any decent football, but with these reports I try to capture
the general mood in the camp, which was that – to put it politely – we looked
nothing like the team which had scored 34 goals in 7 unbeaten games. In fact we looked more like the team who had
lost 1-0 to Deportivo earlier in the season, as we aimlessly pumped long balls
forward with the hope that Dale would work miracles, when the reality was that
Deportivo’s tall defenders could sit deep and head way the ball time and time
again. The failure to keep possession
then meant that we were constantly on the back foot and, in the first half
especially, it felt like we were spending a disproportionate amount of time
trying to win back the ball. Still, this
does make my job easier this week (after two weeks and 15 goals I could do with
a bit of a break) as there a relatively few highlights for me to cover, and I
can simply concentrate on the occasions when the ball found its way into the
back of a net.
There doesn’t seem to be a week without a Kenyon putting the
ball into the net three time, however Ryan’s hat-trick was a little
unconventional, although he can say that of the 22 players on the pitch he was
the only one who scored (look back to the score line if you need help with
solving this riddle).
Ryan is usually the one providing the awesome deliveries
from corners, but for once he was the beneficiary (a nicer way of saying
“receiver”) of a superb ball to the back post from Craig. Ryan found himself unmarked and perfectly
placed to head the ball into the net: 1-0.
This knack of being in the right place at the right time was
less welcome when Ryan attempted to clear the danger posed by an in-swinging
corner in front of our goal.
Unfortunately his out stretched boot could only deflect the ball past
Foggy and into our goal: 1-1.
The conversation at half time was frank and honest, but
everyone seemed to be willing to take the criticism and get stuck in for half
two. We did look a little better, tried
to play it around a bit more, and even created some opportunities for Dale to
test Deportivo’s keeper, who rode his luck but managed to keep everything out. Deportivo also created chances, but these
were restricted to a few snatched efforts as we defended valiantly. Blakely made a welcome return (one of three
changes during the second half as he replaced Rob), and his aerial dominance
was particularly welcome as Deportivo looked to test us by throwing long balls
towards their big front men.
The other two changes were Harry in place of Scott, and Luke
for Craig. So often these second half
changes seem to make a difference, not just because of fresh legs but because
it changes the dynamic, and if the opposition don’t adapt to this you can catch
them out. This definitely seemed to be
the case here, and a short spell on the front foot led to us taking the led
with 10 minutes to go: another set piece resulted in a scramble in the box, and
through a crowd of bodies Liam managed to lift the ball towards the far post,
where Ryan was once again on hand to nod the ball home: 2-1.
The last ten minutes were pretty nerve-racking, and the game
would surely have gone to extra time if Foggy hadn’t rounded off an
accomplished performance by diving full length to his right to tip a goal bound
effort around the post. It was at this
point that we knew we were going to get away with it today, and achieve the
only thing that really mattered*; getting to the next round.
Eye-Ball tends to only get MoTM awards when the team loses,
which I suppose isn’t surprising given you tend to defend most in this
situations. It was therefore nice that
his interventions (including a diving near post header), along with Foggy’s
dominance in goal, helped see us over the line.
Either of these two could have walked way without paying their subs, but
on this occasion it was Eye-Ball who left with the heavier wallet. DoTD was a unanimous decision, with Craig
causing some pre-match confusion as it appeared he had turned up for a game of
tag rugby. It turned out that he
actually just had his shorts on inside out – oh dear.
*There was actually something else that mattered a great
deal: Eye-Ball getting to his Nan’s birthday lunch on time, which wouldn’t have
been possible without Liam and Ryan combining for our second goal – thank you
guys!
Goal scoring chart
No comments:
Post a Comment