It's Alphington away on Saturday!!

Hello everyone, 

 A really good training session last night and I think that we will enjoy training at Isca this winter. I thought the surface was a great and it was nice not having to out up the goals!! 

 It was really good to see our goal keeping coach Gillian working with Sam and Will and by all accounts they enjoyed the session and learnt a lot. She is away next week but will be a regular member of the coaching team which is great. 

News overnight is not so good in that poor old Josh is poorly and is not going to be able to play on Saturday. Added to this we will be missing Ewan from the game. 

So with two key members of our defence team missing we are going to have to make some changes ahead of the match against Alphington. 

The more positive news is that Dan will be fit enough to play for us again on Saturday which is great news after such a nasty looking injury last week. 

John and I have given this considerable thought and we feel that switching to a 4 – 3 – 1 formation might be our best chance, giving us more defensive strength and stability. 

We will also be asking some of the players to play outside their normal positions, most specifically Alfie W. 

So quite a few changes, but we are lucky to have a large enough and talented enough squad to make this work I am sure. 

Starting Team : Goal Keeper – Sam R

Defence – Will A, Charlie, Alfie W and Sam P 

Midfield – Dan, Will P and Joe 

Striker – Tom 

Starting Subs: Ryan, Alfie R and Oscar 

Injured, rested or unavailable – Josh, Cameron, Ewan 

Will A has the captains armband, this is for showing a great attitude and commitment during training and also for a great couple of performances at the start of this season. Well done Will. 

 

The essence of the formation is that we try and stay nice and compact at the back, strong defensive play and then try and counter attack quickly when we can.  

We will be looking for the left and right backs to take opportunities to break down the flanks and when they do so for the other 3 defenders to draw together to offer support and protection to Sam in goal. 

 If you can arrive at the Alphtington ground at 10am sharp please that will give us the time to prepare and talk some of this through in a bit more detail. 

Speaking of which the match will be played at Cowick Barton Fields (EX2 9DD) I have been in contact with Nick their manager and he told me that “The pitch is the furthest away from the main car park so it would be easier to park up that end which you access via Alphington Road” Hope that makes sense!!

 Snack Bar duty on the 4th October – still looking for a team of 4-6 volunteers to take this on please, nothing too onerous but would be grateful for any assistance. 

Think that’s it from me, thanks again for all the support and encouragement. 

 Mark