Reflections on Trophy Games

Hi Everyone. Checking in to give you my views on the last few games.

Firstly the Trophy games. Potters Bar were the opposition and very tough opponents initially they were. Their front two were causing us problems although we caused ourselves far more!! We took a while to take a foot hold in the game and found ourselves 2-0 down pretty quickly. Towards half time we had a corner which Ryan Lockett dispatched clinically! This changed a half time talk from me but still some stern words were said. We came out a completely different team. We had so many chances which pleased me and it was only a matter of time in my opinion that an equaliser was coming.

Sure enough it did through Scott Bridges with another excellent header from a sublime Chris Watters corner. Arguably we probably should have gone on to win the tie but a replay was needed on Tuesday at Garden Walk.

I think we could be a lot happier going into the second game than them and I was very pleased with our overall performance, especially from the front two of Ryan Ingrey and Kaan Fehmi. Some quick notes on these two.

Firstly Kaan. He has a real dilemma on his hands at the moment. As you are probably aware he had passed out as a London cabbie which in it's self is a great achievement but Kaan's problem is mixing it with playing football at the same time!! He's a big lad and can take care of this I'm sure.

As for Ryan. As I've said to him it's like having a new signing!! Ryan and I had a chat at the end of last season. He said to me he wanted to be considered in the centre forward role rather than a midfielder which was where he was playing when I joined the club. This was always the arrangement come pre season and we went into it on these terms. In my opinion he looked a little out of touch in the role and needed 'Re educating' as a centre forward. Obviously as everyone knows there's plenty of competition at Royston for the front places. With Gary Hart/ Ryan Lockett/ Reece Dobson/ Kaan Fehmi and Craig Hammond all vying, not to mention Rob Mason and Luke Robbins 'Inger's just wanted to play so we agreed he should go out on Loan to play and re-access his situation when he got back. Well what a great testament to Ryan!! He has been a credit to himself in how he has acted!

My thoughts on front players are simple! Run around and score goals and you stay in the team! That's the message to them all!! They all want to play but I can't keep them all happy!!

Anyway back to the replay! as said the front two were superb and in testing conditions we decided to go up hill first half and against the wind. We still started better than them and got ourselves in front by Kaan from great work from 'Ingers' for both goals! 2-0 at half time, the message was not to let up, keep pushing and next goal vital for us to kill everything off!! Unfortunately our habit of 'Giving them chances' rose its ugly head again and Potters Bar were back in!

They had a flurry but 'Ingers' got a well deserved goal and effectively it was over! Reece finishing the scoring to make it a 4-1 score line. Witham to come in Trophy but back to league and table toppers Kettering on Sat!

I'll blog that one later!!

Cheers,
SC