It was a damp Sunday morning yesterday and Phoenix travelled to the mighty Anstey Nomads.
Let me start by paying tribute to all our players who attended, in what was a strained and challenging match full of biase through intimidation and some aggressive play. You all held your tempers and back chat was almost none existant from all of them, with the exclusion of one player haha who had a series of fouls against him anly to be reprimanded for asking "why, what did i do!" No names mentioned, seriously laughable considering 🤣
Now on a pitch that should have been declared unplayable early in the morning by opposition management, after we had travelled to the venue, we were told 30 mins before kick off, it may be cancelled. Then as I advised fines would be imposed the pressure then was turned on to play the match by the opposition to the referee.
With that said the game went ahead, Anstey on counter attacks leaving our midfield and attackers stranded in a boggy pitch at the other end led to, it must be said two beautiful goals.
To be fair we had 70% of the posession and dominated the game, but were hindered by a second half pitch that consisted of mud, mud and more mud, much to our dissadvatage.
Our tactics of pass and move with quick one two's had Anstey in a spin which resulted in a flurry of attacks on goal with Dan eventually getting a tap in from a series of shots on goal which seemed to stick to the ground like glue just infront of the goal line.
Great performances all around today, midfield and attackers did really well with shots from all the workhorses Finn, Evan, Tom, AJ and Mass narrowly missing the goal or hitting the crossbar.
A defensive line of Jack, Luke, Cam and Matty took some hard knocks a bit naughty at times but they battled on.
Rocco in goal really had very little to do but the few saves he made were spot on.
Man of the match goes to Finn for showing a great work ethic and giving it his all with my changing of his positioning throughout the game.
Equally I could compliment anyone of them for showing perseverance and great team ethic.
In Truth the game was ours for the taking but lady luck was against us and finally breaking our unbeaten league games run.
We fought hard, communicated well and had multiple attempts on goal, but some biased decisions went against us. As I can only feel the referee was under a lot of pressure from the opposition management being verbally attacked.
Myself, Shawn and linesman Danny unfortunately had to put up with foul language, aggression and initimidation from where we were standing. We all need to remember these are children and this is not a life and death situation, nor the world cup and we are not premiere league managers. It's a game they play to learn and try to develop their skills on and off the pitch whilst having a bit of fun. As managers and coaches we have a responsibility to enusre we also behave in a way that the children look up to and not to copy aggressive and intimidating behaviour.
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