On a cold and blustery day on a lively pitch, Kings found themselves in the luxurious position of having 14 fit men for the game. We had a strong starting eleven, and although we had not played many recent eleven-a-side games, optimism was high and I am sure we were all confident of winning against a team we had beaten 5 – 2 at home.

However, the early exchanges told a different story. It was Airport who were stringing passes together and stretching our defence with Michael Farish, our best player by far on the day, doing sterling work in goal for us. In fact, it was Michael’s positional sense, almost acting as a sweeper on occasion, which prevented many of Airport’s promising attacks turning into more dangerous attempts on goal.

Kevin McMullen won everything in the air, but all too often we squandered possession far too quickly and easily and Airport bounded forward time and time again. We did defend well and managed to contain them reasonably comfortably in the final third of the pitch, but Airport dominated the other two thirds.

Half time couldn’t have come too soon and we rallied the troops, talked about the need to keep our shape, play it simple and stand our players up rather than diving in, which regrettably had occurred all too frequently in the first half. Tim and Rog stressed the importance of the first goal and shortly into the second period, we scored. It owed a great deal to good fortune, but Ste Farish was on hand to stab the ball beyond their keeper from close range, when they failed to clear a corner.

And that, as they say, should have been that. But King’s don’t do “simple”; we started to lose our shape, lose our pressing game and invited pressure onto ourselves by diving into tackles and stopping doing the simple things. Airport sensed that the momentum was with them and after a concerted period of pressure, we conceded a penalty, which they duly converted. It was no more than they deserved and what our play on the day deserved also. Nevertheless, it was disappointing to concede so late in the game and what a boost it would have been to have won a game where we played badly: a hallmark of a championship winning team.

What Have We Learnt:
We must learn to stand opposition players up and not dive in.
Before that, we must learn to get close to the players we are marking.
We ran out of energy and that showed as the second half wore on, because we lost our shape and our discipline. Fitness has to be a personal thing; we can’t get fit on a Tuesday night!
When we are not playing well, we go ominously quiet; it is at those times when we need to be most vocal and most supportive of each other.
Despite being both individually and collectively poor on the day, we still drew against a good, footballing side; so don’t be too down-hearted, because we can still win this league.

Quote of the Week:

Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment.
(Jim Rohn (American author)