Jumbo has been trying to get us to play Westminster Academy for a while. It's been talked about as top venue in terms of turf quality. And it was just that.
May has been cold and a washout but that day, it was remarkably mild. We got there and facilities were nice, the pitches were a nice size too, with I think the a40 being a handy roof if the elements were unkind.
The regulars to this venue, played slightly different rules. The ball going out of play resulting in kick ins and everyone being allowed in the box. It was tough to get used to the rules mentally, having the walls of a cage venue, can lull you into a false sense of comfort, the new rules exposed our passing inaccuracy. We were punished more for mis-placed passes and way off shooting.
Personally, I didn't enjoy it as much, the start/stop nature of the game. It sucked a little fun out of the game. But I am judging it purely as a Thursday night game. I really liked the pitch, it was good quality and proper 3G, unlike Shoreditch, which need to be taken to task. But for a Thursday game, which we have properly earmarked as a more relaxed one, just for fun, I think it will engender frustration. For a 2G game however, it could be exactly what we need, to hone our passing and shooting ability.
It was another tonking sadly. A couple of our players under-performed and the new rules exposed our weaknesses. It meant we were punished more. Losing possession for mis-shots and misplaced passes, meant that we were rightfully made to pay. At Westway and PF, we carry on playing, which is good for fitness, but our mistakes go by blissfully.
We are improving slightly, we're doing more with the ball when we have possession and putting more chances away. Marginally ha!
But we are still getting the basics wrong, really poor passes, bad decision-making, fitness, it all adds up. Disagreements reared up as to the reasonings for the defeat post-match, but again, I'll say it:-
There's a number of reasons as to why we lose. But without fitness those other reasons are stand alone and moot. Our passing is poor, but with fitness it gets negated to an extent as we have pace to rectify the bad passes. The point I make is that we can only improve massively once we're at a good fitness level. A lot of this will be less irrelevant going forward.
From July onwards, match reports will only accompany 2G games and full 7-edits. So at first, once a month. We'll just be doing photobooks for our Thursday games. I'll do a post on these changes next.
Until the next time, see you soon!
Commentaires