Harpenden Rovers 1 Knobs 1

First the game. A fairly fought innocuous sort of affair, I thought, from my position as linesman throughout. Apart from some blatant hacks on Gavin and a slap in the face by Phil, for which he was booked, it was a torpid affair. Some may see it as a good result in hindsight- I thought, with our personnel we should have wiped them out. There you are- opinions. Their keeper saved five times brilliantly and denied us certain goals. They rarely threatened. With a distinct advantage, second half, downslope and a burgeoning wind behind them their sole tactic seemed to be their own goalkicks. Their fleet footed forward stood 30 yards beyond our back four awaiting a titanic launch which rarely came and when it did Trevor simply teased it from his toecaps in the area. Well I suppose they had a tactic. Did we? Gavin, first half on the left was breathtakingly fast, leading to keeper saves and a hack down for a penalty from which Steve missed- it bobbled with goalie going wrong way and trickled past the post! We made some changes with Dave deputising at centre forward, right back, centre half and left back, the boy was all over the place and hacked noone. Chris Wilson had an outstanding game and John Boyle proved to be an excellent right back when placed there. We took the lead when Matt charged down a goalie's clearance with the ball falling invitingly to Mike- he doesn't miss those- often. They equalised with a soft one- admittedly- but apart from a a couple of saves from Trevor and a head off the line from John they hardly threatened. Man of the match? Their goalkeeper.
We retired for excellent snacks and bottles of beer to their clubhouse where MFI furniture is having a renaissance, then went home. Just as I was approaching my front door I was accosted by John and Phil and we adjourned to the Station for a couple. Same clientele, perhaps a little fatter and it still stinks, more so without the fragrant masking of tobacco fumes.

Tactics. It's vets football so you have try hard but also be aware of the limitations nowadays of your teammates. Like slowing down a bit and not being available. Understood!
In Gavin we have a resource not likely to be matched by oppositions. Agreed? Now Gavin might want to be a bit more involved in footballing build up play of a purist sort but above all else he is a Billy Whizz awaiting the welly up and over or around or anywhere in the last third. I'm sure some will not agree, well they are wrong.
Somehow, even though we are unbeaten in the last five games, we are not playing as well as last season and it's not due to individual foibles. I recognise that Steve is not the Martin, Richard or Phil type of midfielder but who else passes short or long with such zip and accuracy? Noone.
Playing Steve as one of two forwards, on the other hand reduces his effectiveness markedly. So what to be done.
In a 4-4-2 the two wide midfielders have to tuck in far more and support and rule the middle. Give them the space out wide, most teams don't know what to do with it. We want a compact centre and if they progress down the wings we will have enough players in the middle, behind the ball to move over and cover or in the ulikely event of them creating a crossing opportunity wide, we will have numbers in the middle to deal with any threat.
Another method, 4-4-3. Again we would depend on personnel. This would have Steve lurking behind the front two with 3 midfielders behind him. This would be fine if the two fullbacks were fit and eager enough to keep filling the wide spaces up AND back again. See who is available.
Then there is the diamond. Fabio said to me........ perhaps we should forgo this.
The best tactical set up would probably be 1-4-4- 3 but we don't cheat but it's worth a thought when playing underage sides.
Fair wind to your arses.

Ron