BAA in the festive mood

It was always going to be a tough game when you play in division three and your drawn in the cup against the team top of Division 1. We also played the last 25min to half an hour of the game with ten players and an outfield player in goal. We didn't have anyone sent off, couple of players came off injured and the others didn't want to come back on. Not ideal and to be honest, you don't win trophies like that either.

The team lined up with a 4-5-1 formation. Damo in goal, Ollie at right back, Luke P at left back with Shane and the zombie at centre back. Right midfield was Butters with Jordan P on the left, the three in the middle was Zak, Luke S and Connor with Harts up top. That left a bench of Jonathan, Courage and Sully.

As expected, Shire started strong, they were physical and dominated. That said, BAA held there own and could of taken the lead when a chance fell to Jordan Hart but his effort went over the bar. There was plenty of goals for Shire but some were disheartening, scrambles in the box, unmarked players scoring from close range, a penalty. This lead to heads dropping and players arguing, it doesn't help. I think the real low was near the end of the first half, sure BAA were 3-0 down but then conceded again. Then took center, gave the ball away and Shire scored again. It was all within about 20 seconds. The defence was over stretched, we were being beaten in midfield and Harts was on his own for long periods. Jay came on before re-aggravating an injury and left with Connor who came off. Courage had a run up front as a frustrated Harts came off.

The second half was actually better, the game was over and BAA accepted it and got stuck in. There was a couple of more goals for Shire and Damo came off due to injury. Jordan went in goal, courage had come off and we played the remaining part of the game with just ten players. Lets look for some positives, Sully did well when he came on and battled. Jordan P never gave up on the wing. BAA also went to close to grabbing a late goal.

The half time talk was good as the gaffer raised the issue of players arguing, try to get it sorted. But after the game, players refusing to help with the nets. Come on lads, we are meant to be a team.

On reflection Shire was always going to win, but we could of made it more challenging, I think we could of kept it down to 3-0 if we had done the basics and played with eleven. A better warm up would of helped.

OK, a bit of a moan....
If we want to challenge to win things, the attitude has to change. We find ourselves in quite a good position. We are fourth in the league, three points from top level on games played. My fear is a couple of bad results and players sulk and dont turn up, the season then limps over the finish line with a mid table finish....like the 2017-18 season! If we apply ourselves, we could win it. One bad result or one bad decision does not warrant players sulking, it achieves nothing. We cant afford to carry anyone, everyone must put the work rate in. If we give our all to the end of the season and dont win anything, we can at least say we tried, hold our hands up and say we wasn't quite good enough, there's no shame in that. But to throw it away because you couldn't be bothered to try, that's criminal in the world of football.