BENTEKE FRIED CHICKEN FC 12-5 F.C. SE7EN - 07.10.20

The winless run continues! Another defeat to take, we got paired up with another league outfit who were warming up for their new campaign. Joining a league is something we are all definitely interested in, but in due course, we are still weeks if not months off the pace and understanding each other as a team is in the infancy stage. We made our concerns clear to Footy Addicts and they were understanding of the points we put forward and have taken them on board. Game on tho.

From the outset we could see that this team weren't as good technically as our opponents from last week, but their endurance was at a higher level than our own. Football wise, I honestly felt we were better, but they were also a very physical side. They took it way too seriously and the opening few minutes saw one of our opponents, who we shall name Pillsbury from now on (due to this rather uncanny resemblance to the Dough boy) attempt to start some rough and tumble with Jumbo. His early cockiness evaporated as he was thrown down to the floor onto his portly dough like tummy, before Tey stepped in to calm things down. Maybe he had forgotten to have his morning doughnut? Who knows?

The Pillsbury Doughboy played for our opponents

Doughboy wasn't the only one to cross the line when it came to aggression, most of them did. It was slightly sad to see, if they feel that this does it for them, then so be it.

But it wasn't fun and I think if we ever meet this bunch again, then we will teach them a footballing lesson.

For about half the game we were very much in it. The scores stayed pegged at 4-2 in the early stages. But they did start to pull away very soon after, a common theme in our matches so far. Interestingly, I don't think the Dough Boy piped up for the rest of the game.

In the end the result showed they were the better team on paper, but if I was being brutally honest, we played badly, very badly. Our passing was way off. It was like watching a monkey with 1 hand trying to throw coconuts at the fairground. Our challenges were light, but as said before, I think that's an understandable cop out. But when our basics were so wrong, the small issues add up and turn into an avalanche falling on us. With poor passing, the whole team dynamic has to quickly adjust from attack to defence. It ruins our flow and momentum and then we are ultimately chasing the ball again, and exhausting our energy which, for now, is something in short supply.

Our shooting is still way off, we need to be more ruthless when we have chances? Showboating is great in the small sided game, I encourage it, not to embarrass people (although it was good to see Pillsbury get skinned on more than a few occasions, karma!) but it's the perfect platform to try new things and develop your own game.

BUT

There does need to be an end product, or for the skillz to benefit the team. Tonight's game didn't really do that, but we're learning every game and we are taking the mistakes and being constructive with them.

I got lambasted slightly for bringing up our fitness again after this game, but I just don't think people are fully understanding the impacts of lacking it. I said in last week's report that fitness doesn't come overnight. But what i'll add, is how fitness dovetails into other parts of our game. In means we run less, so our momentum will always be less than our adversaries, so we will tend to lose 50/50 challenges. It then means we are trying to win the ball, and doing that expends energy we could use in attack. It's harder to press the opposing team, harder to win the ball back, harder to burst into to faster attacks.

All of that WILL COME.

The most important thing, once we get over the initial disappointment of defeat, is that we all had fun. Which is THE only important factor really.

Quickly onto other business, we've upped our membership again by a couple of players who we will introduce next game and could be in a situation soon to have around 10 players weekly. We've put in a lot of work, and things are coming to fruition now.

As a word of thanks, and to have the dual purpose of being a promotional/motivational video, we produced the below (which is also on the Blog within the Post list and also in the FC7TUBE section at the bottom of the home page).

https://footballclubse7en.wixsite.com/fcse7en/post/fc7-update-2020-what-we-ve-achieved-so-far

Till the next game.

I'm off to buy Pillsbury that doughnut so he doesn't get mardy for next week. Silly boy.