Stevenage earn the points

Today we had a hastily rearranged Southern Counties League Fixture against Chiltern, after the same game was postponed at the weekend due to the recent inclement weather we’ve been experiencing. And with our District training cancelled this week due to a grassroots fixture clashing, it also presented me with a chance to work on a few things ahead of an important cup semi-final against St Albans on Saturday.
I wanted to tinker with our formation slightly, especially as George and Tomi were absent, which resulted in Stanley between the sticks and Riley slotting into an unfamiliar right back position, with Bishop moved into central defence and Zac in an uncomfortable left back position. In midfield, we paired Amary and Archie in the middle of the pitch and had Divine and Elliott filling the wide position leaving Aston as our striker and Alfie our only substitute today.

I had wanted to work on some attacking and defensive set plays during training this week, so now was an ideal opportunity to work on them live! The boys would need to adjust quickly, without practise, but they have the game intelligence to pick things up. We went through some expectation’s pre-game, I just hoped that the boys would remember them during the game itself.

I have to say that everybody played well today, Chiltern had a few early breaks which was to be expected with a new back three, but we also looked dangerous going forward and using Divine as a winger was causing the Chiltern defence some headaches. We took the lead after a scramble in the box and Aston kept his cool to slot home from 6 yards out for 1-0.

Chiltern kept plugging away and were rewarded with an equaliser as Stevenage tried to settle at the back, but we gradually worked things out and went in at the break 3-1 up after Divine did well down the right to score, and then he took a high boot in the face in the final minute inside the penalty area and Zac Baldwin strode up and put the spot kick wide of the keeper – even though it wasn’t his best strike.

We spoke at the break about playing the game at varying pace, we had to learn when and where to slow things down, so that we were more effective with our breaks. In the second half we were even better, our passing and possession from Stanley right through to the front players was very impressive, we linked up in combinations and we fought for every tackle as we started to control the game. Elliott Phillips, enjoying himself down our left, grabbed a brace and Taylor, Zac and Divine all doubled their first half goals to put us 8-1 in front.

But despite the score it wasn’t all just one-way traffic, Bishop excelled in his new central role (he must have won about 10 headers today) and I know that Zac loved being given license to press forward down the left. Riley also did really well, rarely losing a tackle in defence. Some of the distribution from Stanley, in the Stevenage goal, was superb today – picking out people with early and accurate passes from his foot or from a throw.
But, overall, I thought Amary was our most influential player out there today, with good help from Archie and Alfie in the middle. Amary won a lot of possession, I watched him checking his shoulder to move into space to receive, he delivered some wonderful passes to set up attacks and he also won quite a few headers too – probably his best performance for Stevenage to date.

Very enjoyable team performance, we need to carry this effort and the clinical finishing into Saturday’s semi-final with St Albans!