Padiham Saints J.F.C

Well lads you rode your luck today, should have netted ten and managed two, played at times with superb football skills and at other times like what you find in a farmers field. That said, winning by the odd goal only gets you the same points as winning by ten but I’ll tell you what, I know who would have been the happier manager at the end of the game.

I always intend my criticism to be constructive and will not make any without a reason so here we go. As I’ve said many times when you play passing football and get into space there’s no one in the league to touch you and that’s when your football as a team is superb. We have lots of talented players to varying degrees and sometimes and today was a ‘sometimes’, you get a rush of blood, beat two three and even four players and still you won’t release the ball. Sorry lads, not good enough, no point getting on the score sheet if you’ve lost. Football is a team game and if you can set a goal up it’s just as important as sticking it in. Selfish play has played a part in the past and I thought it was long gone, it appears not.

Why didn’t you score ten today? Four reasons, selfish play as I’ve pointed out, your finishing just wasn’t good enough, they defended very well under the circumstances and their keeper had a good one.
The last two are beyond your control but the other two can be worked on. Football has lots of component parts to the game not least of all when you get a chance you need to stick it away. Any TV football pundit will tell you the same thing.

Another thing I’ve said before is that you can win ugly and that’s what it was today, even though you dominated and our keeper was hardly troubled there were times when you lost your shape and looked decidedly ragged. I’ll go further than that, you looked rattled, diving in for tackles that just weren’t on and completely missing the challenge. We had three players chasing the same ball and they had three players in the middle unmarked and picking up the loose ball.

What I won’t criticise and I don’t think anyone could is your determination and enthusiasm to win but it needs to be controlled and channelled so that scoring is the aim of the team over and above who scores the goal.
Another three points in the bag and thoroughly deserved but it could have been different, think about it lads, the team is bigger, way bigger, than any individual playing in it. Well done, the Saints go marching on.