City vs Stourport Swifts

[stamoo]

Just like the FA Cup against Heather St Johns lots of industry in the first half despite the heat but absolutely no idea in the final third of the pitch.
Looking at the positives Craig Jones and Joe Hawkins look useful additions and the defence looks far better than in the opening games. Jones in particular looks a class act and noticeably was providing leadership on the field. That said if it was not for their number 3 Platt missing a golden chance when he was allowed to run through the middle and a magnificent save from Ted Cann this would have been a defeat.

Seems we either over hit crosses into the box or try to be far too intricate in our passing on the edge of the box. I like Demitri Brown’s strength and work rate but I don’t think he had a shot and there is no link up play between him and Jordan Harrison who was ineffective again. In short their defence and keeper had the most comfortable of afternoons and unless we can address this issue there is no way City are going to be challenging near the top of the table.

[alwaysnextyear]

Spot on stamoo.

Going forward, Lockett was on a different wavelength to our strikers. When he got the ball at his feet, he looked up to make the pass into space, but both Brown and Harrison were like statues with their movement only ever being reactive rather than proactive. They waited until the ball had been played rather than moving first. This lack of movement also meant Lockett got caught in possession whilst he waited for them to move. In a better team with better players, Lockett would be a consistent match winner.

Stourport had done their homework with Lewis Platt stifling Luke English's forward runs, by keeping him on the back foot for most of the game, whilst we had no width out left either. This left us to just overpass sideways time and again, going nowhere with little purpose or creativity in the final third. As with last season, there look to be few goals coming from the midfield. Birch looks decent, Caines runs about, but neither have a goal in them, playing far too deep. With no English overlapping, and no nous up front we were just so easy to defend against.

As stamoo said, the defence did well albeit against an equally shot shy attack, whilst Cann in goal saved a point for us with a fabulous save. It's time the results started to do the talking.

[Tim Munslow]

I know it was a really hot afternoon but I found the whole match boring: many more like this and I'll find something better to do.