Heather st Johns 4 Shepshed Dynamo 2

Full tale of the tape when I have gathered my thoughts tomorrow.

Just have a rant    

This teams needs management of high quality to convert a skilful footballing side into a unit. Time will tell if the current new management have the skills to deliver.

The players on the pitch at Heather possessed footballing quality but they do not play as a unit throughout the field of play. They play quality football amongst small areas of the pitch but do not link up with other units. To explain further...................

Attacking down the flanks, we get to the edge of the 18 yard box and either freeze and run out of ideas or deliver poor quality ball into the box.

There is no presence in the box to frighten the opposition. Everything is ventured on the edge of the 18 yard area and again very little to frighten the opposition transpires. We need to pass the ball into players arriving into the box but the midfield haven't got the confidence to deliver these balls or make these runs.

We possess 2 large central defenders. You would hardly know though as they do not put in crunching tackles or command in the air. They play far too square leaving the full backs with too much to do when they fail to gain possession.

I will never criticise a keeper such as Ryan Thacker. He is on a hiding to nothing when left with so many one on ones to deal with. He is a great shot stopper and his aerial performance is sound for such a young lad. I would expect in 5 years time with quality coaching for him to be playing at a level much higher than Midland Alliance.

The 2 forwards, Jones and Chaplin run their socks off and possess good skills for this level of football but the support they receive is woeful. Not because the support possess poor footballing skills, its the game plan that worries me. You would expect these 2 target men to be adequately backed up by ferocious midfield players who scoop up any loose ball and hold it enabling the other players to begin their runs into the box. Sadly I did not see that on Saturday.

I have heard so many fans say that we miss a sweeper such as Chris Gray to help the defence but we cannot rely on this tactic as once the opposition work this one out we will find ourselves defending 10 yards plus further back down the field.

Why not play a strict 4-4-2 formation. Abandon attacking full backs. Have a solid defence and build on that. Get the midfield to dominate an area around the centre circle and allow the wing backs to do the running up and down the flanks. Allow the 2 front runners to capture and hold the ball enabling support to arrive.  Ok it might be boring for a few matches but at least the goals "against" should dry up and when confidence returns throughout the team the goals "for" should fly in. Let's face it, the standard of football in this league is not very high and a team with a good formation and above average players should be in a promotion position by the end of the season. Trouble is, for Shepshed it won't be this season................................

Cheers Steve thanks for your kind support     that won't happen again unless we seriously get hammered and the report will be portrayed in a different manner although Saturday turned into a long  finishing at approx. 3am in the morning with the darts down the pub #major headache Sunday  

On reflection of the game it was more frustrating to lose to Vidal Sassoon and his squad than the actual performance we did actually look the more dominant side early on the game and I have to agree with a couple of Yoda's comments Rob Mulonga and Keiron Davies are both good attacking wing backs but lack the strength defensive wise to cope with being exposed and lack the defensive ability to deal with a physical attacking approach but with a squad with new signings, injuries, and suspensions fair does to Jim and Holesy resources are stretched at the moment. It was a pity Sam Cook wasn't available as Thompson and the new midfielder Webb were influential.

The Other comment I agree with Yoda is we need a holding central midfielder who can stem the flow through the middle of the park and sometimes take a booking for the team to break play down as a majority of Heathers goals came from Shepshed attacking and being exposed.

Now we are nearly halfway through the season I feel it's time to give Jim and Holesy time to develop over the festive period and the New Year but woe be tide you both if it doesn't happen against the scum New Years Day  

I personally believe in the 4-4-2 system we have been successful with earlier in the season.

Here's the tale of the tape from what I can remember     

6mins Hateley mistake Smedley puts Shepshed in front
Heather St Johns 0 Shepshed Dynamo 1
10mins Heather break right to left Woodbine equalises
Heather St Johns 1 Shepshed Dynamo 1
12mins Jones to Chaplin saved by Hateley
15mins Wallen slots passed Thacker
Heather St Johns 2 Shepshed Dynamo 1
23mins Jones to Davies Hateley saves
24mins Webb wide
25mins St Johns wide
26mins Heather shot deflected wide
32 mins Chapman adds to Heathers tally
Heather St Johns 3 Shepshed Dynamo 1
H-T Heather St Johns 3 Shepshed Dynamo 1

51mins Mulonga over the top
55mins Mulonga over again
77mins Wallen slots passed Thacker
Heather St Johns 4 Shepshed Dynamo 1
85mins Smedley tap in
Heather St Johns 4 Shepshed Dynamo 2
F-T Heather St Johns 4 Shepshed Dynamo 2 att 97

As I put in the official report a failure to turn possession and chances in the first half cost us dearly but hopefully we can put this right on Boxing Day and the forthcoming fixtures.