Mens Fours in close shave with Hampton

The second of our pre-season friendlies saw the Mighty 4’s entertain local rivals Hampton. We went on to lose 4 – 3, a fair result perhaps, but it was a close shave and a much better performance by the team than that from the previous week.

Sils opened strongly with some robust defending against early pressure from a strong Hampton side. It was obvious from the start that they were a well organised side and the mix of youth and experience provided them with a good balance. Their passing was crisp and accurate with good ball pace. It was also immediately noticeable that they moved the ball early before getting closed down and made easy short passes to keep possession until the gaps opened up for them to push forward. We could and should learn from this. It takes less effort and energy to play this way and it is very effective.

Mick, Mike and Aylin (Solicitors?) were tackling well and despite Hampton’s better structure and interplay they found it difficult to penetrate our defence. One of their youngsters looked positively startled when he realised that Mick actually moved! It wasn’t long before said solicitors began supplying the midfield and Sils began pushing forward. It was still early in the game when either Dave Higgins or Simon Russell (not sure which) found John Harrison wide right and unmarked. A quick look up and then he executed a sublime pass down the right flank which was neatly collected by Keith Willetts at full stretch. Having drawn both the defender and keeper towards the edge of the D Willetts passed the ball across the top for Rush to run on to and guide the ball into the net. Things were looking good.

Hampton soon recovered and began attacking with skill and pace. It wasn’t easy but Sils dealt with the pressure well with robust and effective tackling and blocking by all the defenders. Steve Aylin was particularly effective in using his long low reach to regain possession. Great stuff. There were times when Sils lost their shape but continued effort and determination from the defence and midfield kept the game fairly even. There were also a few occasions when Sils defended so deeply that they found themselves with nine men packed inside the 23 metre line. Perhaps this was necessary in order to break down the Hampton attacks but it also created a problem. With so many sitting so deep it enabled Hampton to push up into our half and control the space between our 23 and the halfway line. This in turn made it difficult to get the ball back out into midfield to relieve the pressure.

Some good build up play down the left by Matt Lyons and Tony Dwyer caught Hampton on the back foot and a penetrating cross into the D resulted in a short corner which we failed to convert. In the melee that followed Willetts found the ball on his reverse stick and made a pathetically weak push towards the corner of the goal. Even so the keeper only just managed to stop it under his outstretched foot and James Harris was unlucky in his attempts prod it into the goal. A lucky let-off for Hampton and at the break they were leading by two goals to one.

After the restart Hampton increased their lead with another well taken goal. Despite falling further behind Sils continued to work hard. Craig made a couple of great tackles to thwart the left-wingers attempts to break through into the D and Dwyer also got stuck in helping to break down their forward play. On a number of occasions Harris used his speed to surprise the opposition and nudge the ball on before they realised what was happening. Sils were definitely not going to give up and they continued to worry the Hampton defence with sporadic periods of serious pressure.

During one of these moments Rushy conjured up a great effort by threading the ball through a crowd of players before deftly flicking it towards the top right hand corner. How disappointing to hear it ping off the outside of the post, a close shave for Hampton. It deserved better.

Shortly after this Hampton’s keeper did well to block a great shot from a short corner by Russell. The rebound dropped to Harrison who, not to be rushed, took the time to tighten his shorts before slamming the ball into the back of the net. We were back in it.

Surprisingly our first card of the season was drawn by Harrison who viewed the green triangle with astonishment. Harsh perhaps especially as the terrified opponent engaged reheat to evade Harrison’s trademark chopping action - such a joy to watch. On leaving the field of play a rather sweaty Harrison turned to Pat Lane, “Give me exactly two minutes.” Good Lord, whatever next, a Demi Moore/Robert Redford remake?

Hampton stuck with their game plan and continued to apply pressure using short accurate passing to keep possession while constantly probing the Sils defence. Yogi pulled off several important saves to keep them at bay. He really is becoming a very good goalkeeper. One shot in particular was heading for the top corner and he simply swatted it away with the dexterity of a beach volleyball babe and a certain, ‘je ne sais quoi’.

Keeping their shape, composure and high tempo it came as no surprise when Hampton found the net again. Despite this the game was still in the balance and Sils kept their spirits up and continued to work hard. Harrison (could have been Lyons) put in a great ball across the Hampton goal mouth to find Dwyer on the far post and he tapped it into the net and reached for the sky. It was a joy to look down on his raised hand. Unfortunately the umpire spotted an infringement by Willetts and blew for a Hampton free hit. Sorry Tony.

Russell completed the score line with a well taken and well deserved goal. This was a fitting reward for his tireless running and powerful midfield performance.

One thought. Yogi is righto persist with his shout of, “Don’t give the ball away.” Possession is key and all too often we give the ball away when we are not under pressure. This is very simple to rectify and we should copy the second team. In this situation their first thought is to look up and make a good pass. In the same situation we often run with the ball until we are closed down and then it becomes much more difficult to make that pass because you are forced to look down at the ball. Hence you often hear the opposition shout, ‘keep his head down’. The rationale is equally simple - the ball can travel much faster than a man can run so pass it while you have the time and space.

Having said that, this was a significant improvement on the previous week’s performance and there are many positives to take from the game. Bring on Old Hales.

Our intelligent post-match fag end tactics session highlighted tips for next week’s match. (keep up). Judicious placing of the fag ends on the table clearly illustrated the rationale for moving the ball around the back to find the space to push forward. In particular the need to move the ball quickly around the back three (or four) from 16 yard restarts when the forward option is often closed off. Mysteriously, Aylin leaned in, transfixed, until suddenly he had a ‘Benson and Hedges’ moment (thanks Dave).

“Yeah, it’s like a piece of, you know, chain link fencing. You can stretch it out and compress it in and it’s still the same piece of fence. (Surreal or what but we were all listening by now.) By stretching the fence stretched you can reach out to the extreme left and extreme right (Corbyn/Farage) offering the option to switch the play from one side to the other to find a route out while, crucially, still retaining possession. (My jaw was definitely in the dropped position.) When facing an attack from the opposition (who else would it be from Steve?) you compress the fence into the centre (Farron?) creating a strong narrow defence. At all times the back four remain linked (wonderful) together.”

“Yes Steve but does it work?”

“Depends which side of the fence you’re on.”

With that and a telling smile, Steve lowered his ice-blue shades, pulled on a smoke grey leather and casually left the arena aboard a cool pair of cerulean blue sneakers. Wow!!!!