Vs Terrassa 5-2 Loss

Guest match report by Mike Roberts

With Richard down south with the sound of the Beach Boys in his ears, in the absence of their mentor, the Collins were left to fend for themselves in his absence. Things didn’t start well, as the squad assembled outside the pub wondering where the kit was and waiting for it to appear out of thin air, while out in Terrassa the day’s opposition had already started their warm-up routine. With matters finally sorted out, it was off to Terrassa, with Mike Roberts muttering away to himself about a decade and a half of calamitous journeys to Terrassa in which we have managed to maintain a proud tradition of clutching defeat from the jaws of victory. Today was to be no exception.

The first half was a joy to behold. Gerard Vilanova of Terrassa’s version of events sent to the official BIFL website speaks of “the Michael Collins scoring two first half goals on the counter attack.” Just what game he was watching is hard to imagine, for by definition, for a team to start a counter attack, the opposition first has to form an attack to counter, and those were conspicuous only by their absence in Terrassa’s first half. We were all over them. Absolutely running rings around them. Solid in defence, with more pace and ideas in midfield, and for the first time in three games, actually making that possession count. Either Victor López scored first and Fritz after, or Fritz first and Victor after, I can’t remember, but whatever, we were 2-0 up within about twenty minutes, and Terrassa had barely managed to string together more than a couple of passes. They did manage to create a few problems as the half wore on, but by half time it was so far so good, and oozing with confidence, the only thoughts the Collins had were of grabbing an early second half goal to settle things, and then to turn their attention to their plans for the evening.

But there were two major factors that had not been taken into account. The first was the sun. It was another matter entirely playing with squinting eyes as the great ball in the sky glared down in your face, and winning high balls was suddenly not the simple affair it had been before the break. The second concern was the Terrassa bench. They had five subs, and good ones at that, while we only had Caj and an injured Simon.

Still, we soldiered on, knowing that on the strength of our first half supremacy, not even those minor concerns were likely to deny us the three points. But then disaster. Just what the Doctor was doing, we cannot be sure, but a lunging tackle to bring down a rival striker who really wasn’t doing any harm whatsoever resulted in the ref having little option but to point at the (non-existent) penalty spot. Following a minute or two deciding where said penalty spot should have really been, Terrassa were off the mark. 2-1.

The goal knocked some of the confidence out of the Collins boys, and at the same time served to buoy up the home side, and the course of the entire game had changed. A high but reasonably saveable strike from outside the area was flunked by goalkeeper Mike Roberts, who muttered some lame excuse about the sun being in his eyes, and it was 2-2, and although he managed to redeem himself with two or three cracking saves (if I can say so myself), the last half hour or so saw the ball almost constantly in the Collins’ half of the pitch, and with the midfield having collapsed, and the defence making all the simple errors they had so brilliantly failed to make in the second half, more goals threatened to come if the Collins didn’t get their act together quickly.

They didn’t. Terrassa’s third saw the ball crossed in and frustratingly managing to bounce of the toe of some guy who was laid out on the floor to go in, the fourth was a one-on-one as one of their players managed to leave our defenders standing. Terrassa were reinvigorated by all those substitutions, the Collins were demoralised and, in laymen’s terms knackered, and by the time it was 5-2 the green and whites were beyond caring any more and yelling at the referee to blow for time and put them out of further misery.

All in all a thoroughly disappointing defeat, for at half time it had all looked so very different, but if any lesson was learned today, it was the importance of having a strong set of players, five if possible, to bring on in the second half – it’s in the last half hour when games are won or lost, as we found out the hard way in Terrassa.

The man of the match award was shared by Walther and Victor ‘guapo’ as Terry has decided to name him (as opposed to Victor ‘máquina’ in midfield). Next week, it’s the Cup first round, a difficult task in high-flying Black Horse, but wouldn’t it be just fecking marvellous to put out a side that is surely already making plans for their second round game against Storesnay. This season, when the Collins click, we’re a match for anyone. Let’s hope there’s plenty of clicking in front of the Wags on Saturday then.

Vs Storesnay 0-0

Not much to say about this game part from the fact that the first half produced about total of 3 shots from both teams. The defences were rarely tested. All our work went up the right wing and both forwards were dragged there meaning there was rarely anybody in the box to score when needed. Cedric was wide open on the left yet it never got that far.

The second half was all collins though, we dominated possession, and really should have scored in the 1st part of the half but it wasn´t to be. Brendan´s sending off for thinking about reacting to blow could have screwed us but it actually galvanized us into motion, and there was a flurry or attacks, post, save, bar, save, save and bloody save. The icing on the cake was from the effervescent Walther who managed to blaze over from 3 yards out with 2 minutes to go. All in all, a clean sheet so point is ok, but the midfield forward understanding needs to improve alot to make any inroads in this league. We really should be winning these.

0-0 vs Torpedo

Not a bad result vs the 2nd division champions on saturday, especially when you take into account the state of the manager pre match. Apart from Terry,and Pat, we were at full strength, so should have been very competetive but Richards 3 hours sleep and hangover did not make for a good defensive cover. Fritz was back to add meat to the challenges at right back. James and the argentinians were late arrivals so Caj started on the right wing, and Humberto started up front.

St Marti is a rotten pitch for football, so it was always likely to be scrappy but the first half was horrible. There was no cohesion in our play, the ball was carelessly given away constantly, and the defense was always busy, although rarely found wanting. The Torpedo strikers were not particularly efficient, but then whenever they got within 20 yards of the goal, one of the back 4 crunched them hard enough to make them wary. Maybe this was what started them whinging, but it became the main aspect of the game. First half they seemed always to have an extra link up man in midfield, and had the better of the play, but we weren't particularly worried about their firepower. 0-0 half time.

James came on for Humberto and Walther for Caj at half time. Mike refused to come on for a flagging Richard as he said his hangover was worse after attending the same wedding. The second half was much better as we kept the ball better. The addition of Walther especially made the midfield a little more tricky, and started causing Torpedo some problems. After the 0 shots on target from the first half, we started creating chances, though mainly they were spurned. Corners and free kicks were coming reglarly and even with 3 players over 6 foot, we could not break the deadlock. Simon came off injured and Juan moved on to the left wing to start causing havoc with the tired Torpedo whingers. The game petered out in the end with nothing much going forward with either team. 0-0 a fair result although disappointing after the last game.

Man of the Match FRITZ, he's back!!