Pass. Move. Pass. Move. Back to front. Ball on the deck. Constant movement. Easy on the eye, that's how purists want the game to be played. Some of the best teams ever have played football this way. Pep's Barcelona and Bayern Munich spring to mind. Obviously to reach that level you need exceptional footballers, but what is wrong with trying to aspire to that kind of football with the player's you have in your team. Can you picture that archetypal Manchester City goal, where they pass the ball for a period of time, maintaining possession and then they pounce and Raheem Sterling turns the ball into the goal from 6 yards out. Well Concord yesterday scored a similar goal, however Lamar Reynolds was wrongly ruled offside. A side point, yesterday that linesman in particular was very keen to raise his flag, for both sides it had to be said. I thought the benefit of the doubt was to be given to the attacking side this season under the new rules...maybe that news hasn't filtered down the leagues yet!
Anyway back to the main point, Concord are playing some delightful football at times this season. It's really encouraging to see young footballers prepared to pass the ball out of defence, and having the courage to keep on trying if they at don't first succeed. The midfielders rotate constantly, and cover every blade of grass on the pitch, doing the hard work...but their quality on the ball is to be admired. When the ball needs to be pinged to the advancing wing backs the ball is 9 times out of 10 perfect. Those wing backs, whoever they are require a set of lungs to play in that position. I remember when the wing back formation really came into fashion in this country, in around the mid 90s. Most the Premier League sides dabbled in playing that way, and our Sunday league manager decided he wanted to try that formation out. Well I played left wing back one week, and was completely f**ked after 90 minutes. So it's really encouraging to see whoever plays wide right or left for Concord still defending and attacking the penalty boxes late into the game.
Lamar Reynolds again was excellent yesterday, I'm not surprised he ran out of legs late in the second half, as he had given his all. With a bit more luck in front of goal, and maybe with an over-eager linesman not being in attendance he would have had a deserved couple of goals to his name. The only minor downside on the team performance was the lack of that goal to get the club definitely into the next round of the Cup. If the game ended 3-0 St Albans could have had no complaints, St Albans dodged a bullet yesterday, and I would imagine the replay to be a lot tougher at their place. It was a shame Temi missed the late penalty, but penalties can be scored and missed, and I'm sure Temi will bounce back from that with a solid performance in his next start.
Whilst it was a lovely Saturday afternoon, and people's times at weekends is precious, it would be great to see more fans in attendance at home games. There was a time pre-pandemic at home games when it was full of kids who played for the youth teams and their parents, and it made for a really nice family atmosphere at games. It would be fantastic if we could get back to that. When there are more fans in the stadium it creates a better atmosphere for everyone, players and fans alike. For me growing up, the FA Cup gave me some of my best footballing memories, supporting a so-called big club. (I could go on about their lack of trophies over the last 30 years, but that's for another time!) However Tottenham's cup run under Gazza and Gary Lineker in 1991 will stay long in my memory, and also my Mum telling me Spurs had scored in the 1987 FA Cup Final, I was in the toilet at the time, I rushed out, and found that Gary Mabbutt had scored an own goal! Also the FA Cup was the scene of the best game I've ever seen live. It was Southend 4 Northampton 4 in 1986 (I think, yes just googled it). In which there was like 6 goals scored in 20 minutes. Richard Cadette scored his hat trick goal, and came over and ruffled my hair. As a 10 year old then, I was ecstatic and can still remember it now. That's what football memories are all about, and it would be great if some of the kids attending Concord matches will in 30 years time, maybe blog about the time a footballer celebrated with them.
Finally to finish, it was great to see that Billy Roast has returned to training with the club. Billy is a real favourite with the fans, and his never-say-die attitude on the pitch, and his undoubted footballing qualities will be a real pleasure to watch again, when he's ready to return to playing.
#YAMC
