Vs Dragon 3-2 win

Well a game of two halves again, the first half disastrous, and the second much better. Dragon started with just 10 men and it looked on paper like we should have whitewashed them but as is always the case with the Michael Collins fc, we didn´t allow it to go to plan. We were playing like it was a foregone conclusion and missed about 10 chances in the first half that would have opened the flood gates for a resounding victory. Defensively we were struggling with the speed of the Dragon front two who were surprisingly good, and once again our midfield wandered.

It came as no surprise when true to my prediction after 15 minutes, Dragon scored. They deserved the goal too, poor marking from throw ins made life easy for them and a cluttered defence allowed them to poach 1-0 from us. this was not going to plan. Luckily for us, Tim and Manuel got over their handbags argument and passed the ball to each other which opened the door for a great Glendon cross and manuel cooly volleyed past the Dragon keeper. even at 1-1 we looked suspect. It was hard to watch from the sidelines but soon dragon scored the second with a wonderful solo run from their nippy no. 9 who went past 4 players from midfield and scored a cracker to put them in the lead again.

Half time couldn´t come quick enough, and changes were made more to shake things up a bit and remove the lethargy that seemed to have infused the team. Rich came on at centre back, moving Kris up into midfield. Andre replaced Hektor at right wing and the doctor came on for Caj. Mike went off to watch the eurovision song contest which shows the quality of our play really.

We started strongly this time and Sebastian scored early to even things up. we were creating lots of opportunities again but the forwards seemed to be drifting into wide roles and there didn´t seem to be anybody in the danger area time and time again. Tom was smashing chinese players all over the pitch and being politically incorrect about the whole thing as usual, and he soon reduced their number by one by breaking one of their forwards ankles. 2 minutes later a petulant slap to the back of Sebastians head and his customary reaction earned two red cards to reduce the numbers more, 9 versus 10.

At this point anything could happen and it duly did. A corner from the left, Glendons despairing reaching header glancing the ball into the path of.....wait for it......Me! and the magnificent centre half buried the winner bringing a tear to the eye of his adoring public.

It still had a few twists as some appalling defending allowed Dragon 2 free kicks outside our penalty area which they should have done better with but hey we won at last, not convincingly, not stylishly (apart from my goal), but 3 points is 3 points, so now we have to prepare for the french in 2 weeks. A sterner test i think!

17th May vs Terrassa lost 5-1

I for one went into this game feeling like we had a good chance against a reasonable but beatable terrassa team. The game had been cancelled the week before due to torrential rain and the replay looked wet too.

The collins lined up with three new argies and a new american keeper, but Tim came back from injury, and we had a few spare players on the bench. At kickoff, Tim felt his ankle wasn´t up to it which was a great blow, so we lined up with Caj and Reuben on the full back berths, James (back from obscurity in the UK) and Kris at centre back, and new keeper Den. Lluis, Sebastian (new argie), Zugi, and Andre in midfield. Glendon and Manuel were up front.

This starting line up should have been strong enough to defend the basic forward play that Terrassa had to offer but over the next 15 minutes the Collins imploded. The structure was fine but everybody seemed to be out of position all of the time. The two full backs were constantly 5 or 6 metres ahead of their markers with one of the centre backs playing them onside. In front of the hapless defence were a non existent midfield who like schoolboys ran around after the ball like headless chickens and gave no cover to the defence. The sum total of this was that every time the Terrassa players got the ball, they could play a long ball to the wings and their players found they were in space with no markers, or they just ran through the middle of the park without challenge and overwhelmed the flimsy line ahead of them with sheer force of numbers.

The first goal started a deluge where time and time again, the full backs were caught out and the wingers roamed with impunity through our penalty area. Den, brave despite the onslaught kept them out 4 times out of 5, but after 30 minutes we were 4-0 down. Richard, screaming at them from the sidelines to keep their shape had to do something, and aj was swapped for the Doctor (argie) at right fullback, and he concentrated his ire on Sebastian who seemed incapable of staying in position, and Reuben who also drifted dangerously. The problems slowed a bit as the structure returned but the damage was done.

Half time could not come soon enough, and a roasting ensued. after alot of arguing and blaming each other, nobody wanted to take responsibility for the poor performance and I was disappoined with the lack of character we showed. If you screw up, admit it, and improve. Don´t blame all of those around you. Its a team, not indiviaduals, and i´m going to have to do some soul searching before the next match. Sebastian was subbed and Richard came on to organise a pathetic defence. Kris was pushed into midfield to offer a defensive shield in front of the centre backs. Jose (argie) came on for Reuben, and we were off.Immediately we could see the change, Den had little to do, and we started to push on. The pressure was telling and the defence was suddenly firm. Terrassa started diving to drag the game out but Lluis burst through and scored to make it 4-1. The game was back on, and we pushed forward again and again, but the Terrassa keeper was having a great game and stopped shot after shot. In the dying moments a speculative 30 yard effort was poorly fumbled by Den who was the first to admit his error (a lonely voice of honesty) to allow them to finish at 5-1.

A tale of 2 halves it was, and the disappointment is that if we´d played like the 2nd half in the 1st, we´d probably have won, but once again we let ourselves down. If we continue with the bad attitude aswell then we´ll lose our hard earned reputation for hard but fair play. Anyway, onwards and upwards...