A cool and cloudy day did not spoil the enjoyment of spectating this week as we were all under the grandstand and I was keeping warm behind the BBQ pretending to cook up a storm! Well at least it did not storm out on the pitch.
Rovers had a few out this week, with Paul F still injured and James & Paul D. both sick. We started with Luke in goals, Diego sweeping, Johnny & Daniel as twin Central Defenders, Chris, & Anthony as Left & Right Wing – Backs respectively, Petar, Michael & Connor in Midfield, with Ricky & Drew up forward. Matt, Lucas, Steve & Andrew were on the pine.
The game started out at a snails pace with most of the boys content to sit back and let somebody else do the work. Ringwood were bad but Rovers weren’t much better. There was little talking and some players were content to hold onto the ball for too long interrupting any flow to the game. We had several shots on goal that were wide, high or straight at the keeper, making him look almost nimble when in fact he was not agile at all. Ringwood had a few passages forwards but their shots for goal was the stuff keepers dream about, all from long range and some high or very wide. Luke was lapping it up. Rovers slowly started to combine better with several corners, although none amounting to anything. Connor was working hard in midfield and on one of his forays forward, received a push in the back, in the box, and from the penalty kick Johnny had no trouble beating the keeper. We were on the board and starting to pepper the goals with Johnny missing then Chris had a shot which was saved by the keeper. Michael had a few more corners and Ricky slipped in to put away a nice header to increase the lead.
Rovers came forwards once again and in a nice piece of play, some fluent passes from Diego to Connor to Ricky saw a quick transition from defense to attack. Ricky’s first time back heel to a forward running Drew exposed the Ringwood Defense. Drew was heading straight for goal, but being harassed by a Ringwood Defender and an advancing keeper. Drew then checked and back heeled to Ricky who had kept running. This wrong footed both defender & keeper and allowed a simple tap in for Ricky.
No doubt one of the plays of the season so far.
Half-time score: Rovers 3 : Ringwood 0
The second half was not much more inspiring with some really basic errors creeping into our game. We had about 4 foul throws, a few off-sides and again not much talking. Several poor back passes were “hospital passes”, way too high putting the poor defender right under the hammer.
Fortunately Ringwood could not capitalize on our mistakes so we were not punished on the scoreboard, but try this against a good side at your own peril!
There were some positives in the second half, with more fluent movement of the ball, players closing down their opponents quickly, without committing the cardinal sin of “diving in” and being prepared to keep possession, even when under pressure.
In one particular passage of play a through ball found Drew again running towards goal with only the keeper to beat. After he had rounded the keeper he was brought down in the box and from the resultant penalty Diego put another goal on the board. Some good individual efforts were going unrewarded until Chris collected a ball in his own half, dribbled past one Ringwood player, played a one – two with Drew and then another with Ricky, and rifled in our 5th Goal from 25m to again have the scoreboard attendant busy. Well if we had a scoreboard attendant he would have been busy anyway!
Andrew & Lucas came on for Connor & Anthony.
More good teamwork was evident as Andrew passed to Ricky who passed back to Andrew who then scored number 6 from just inside the 18 yard box. Shortly thereafter a rebound from a corner came out to Petar whose left foot half-volley again found the back of the net for goal number 7. I must admit by the latter stages of the game most interest from the crowd was in the Magpies vs Bulldogs score, as our game had become a one horse race.
A much improved performance on the week before, but still a lot more improvement possible.
Scores at full-time: Rovers 7 : Ringwood 0
ROVERS – an individual effort today boys, with clangers up & appeals to the Ref up.
We can all do a bit better, with talking out on the field and passing first time TO THE FEET (See coaches manual Part 1) basic areas where we could keep improving.
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