3s vs Alexandra Park – 10.09.16

Having prepared for a long journey to north London, specifically Alexandra park, the boars seem to be ready for the start of the season.
Long trails of messages in Whats-App midweek gave us a hint of a strong selection. As there were new players joining the team for this season, Neal Davidson started sharing the quick rules and traditions. Himself being unable to abide at the very first and simple one “don’t be late”,  whilst the ones that managed to get on time watched Man City beat Man United at the bar…
Finally, the kit arrived with Neal 30 minutes before kick off.. Once the boars were ready and on the pitch, instructions were given, and a 4-4-1-1 formation would be the game plan.
As the game started we looked confident on the ball for the first 5 minutes, before one of the centre midfielders (not Darcy) gave the ball away, allowing opposition strikers to take the goal advantage.

It seemed a nightmare to have conceded within the first few minutes of the game. However, we started to hit back at the opposition with long passes, even though Neal as a lone striker was not much of a threat to their defence.

Somehow we got a free kick not far from the edge of the box. Ricardo took the set piece lifting the ball into the box for Joe Grew to score a great header; cancelling out the advantage.

As the game progressed Merton kept giving away the ball whilst the opposition kept stretching the small pitch. I even heard a fellow player saying the opposition made it look like Wembley Stadium with the number of passes they had. Nevertheless, their striker ran from side to side of the pitch dodging the Merton midfielders and defenders to score a second goal.

From then on the opposition kept the pressure on us making it almost impossible to create chances. The third goal came after a clear foul on Ricky which the referee seemed to have missed somehow but, I must admit that the finish of the goal deserved to be mentioned. After that it was so hard to come back on the game and if I remember correctly they had more chances which Dan, Vin and Joe managed to keep out, leaving us 3-1 at half time.

In the second half the formation was changed to 4-3-3 which gave a bit more improvement to the team but again they managed to score from an offside position thanks to the referee not calling it. Neal came off with a hamstring injury, Ricky missed a chance to get back in the game putting the ball over the goal after their goalkeeper saved a shot from Darcy. Welchy conceded a penalty bringing down their striker. Dan, who did great in goal managed to save the penalty among other great saves, which in turn gave him man of the match at the end of the game. Ricky kept playing injured from the foul in the first half as no substitution was available until he “almost” walked off the pitch in frustration after a rant from another boar for a clumsy pass.

After all this we managed to concede two more goals on the second half leaving the final score 5-1.

The boars got together at the end of the game and briefly analysed what went wrong but looking for positives to take from the first game to improve future performances.

Dick of the day went to Ricky for walking off (even though he never left the pitch I have to say) merely the sideline to get some water. In punishment for this, he got to write this report that hopefully some may find true accounts of the events lol.

Its worth a mention that the youth debutant, Joshua, did very well and we hope he continues to improve and grow among the older boars.

We left Alexandra Park in a positive frame of mind and looking ahead to the future, as there are still many games to play for.