A Bad Day at the Office

Well that was shit, was my initial thought when thinking about this blog yesterday afternoon. Maybe that's a bit harsh, as you know the boys put in 100% effort during the game. However you cannot hide from the fact that yesterday was a bit shit.  As a Concord fan and not trying to speaking for others, we will never slag off the players or management. Never. In all my eight years of going to watch Concord I've not heard one boo. I've heard plenty from opposing fans, even when the slightest thing goes wrong, but never any negativity from the home supporters.  I think that's something to be proud of.  This is a tough league, it's a hard long season.  Always has been, and it's only getting harder with the quality of players now filtering down the pyramid into this division, and with more sides becoming full time. If you make individual errors you will get punished in this league.  There is no denying the fact that defensively we are letting in too many goals recently.  It's hard to win games if you have to score three goals a game to ensure you get the three points. I don't know how many penalties we have conceded this season, but I know it's too many. During the first half of yesterday's game, if you told me Hungerford would score four, I would have told you to get lost. We were comfortable for the opening thirty minutes. Then we gave away a silly penalty. The spirit and the character of the side shone through, and we equalised almost immediately.  The second half started and us fans thought ok, let's press on and gain the three points.  However we gave away two goals in the opening minutes of the half.  It was sloppy.  You cannot make mistakes at this level, and whilst it's frustrating for me to write that, the players know themselves.  These are good players, I've seen them all play excellently this season, every single one of them, so yes I think yesterday was a bad day at the office.  Put it to one side, and focus on the next league game, which is Dartford the league leaders at home. There is no better opportunity to show the Concord spirit and the true Concord way then giving one of the big sides in the league a right good game.

On a side note from the actual football on the pitch, it was wonderful to see so many people at the game yesterday.  Plenty of youngsters and faces I haven't seen before.  Driven by good initiatives from the committee members, let's hope those youngsters who turned up yesterday, pester their parents to carry on taking them and we can see them attend again.  Maybe they will become Concord players of the future! It was also nice to see so many people in the bar afterwards, in the past that has been quite a lonely after-match drink, so it was good to see people hang around and watch a player pick up a man of the match award.  A bit galling that it was an opposition player that won the trophy, but maybe next time a Concord player can win it!

Interview with the Manager

It's been a promising start to the season for Concord Rangers and it's been a joy to watch them over the first games of the season. Concord are currently sitting in the play-off positions after nine league matches  under new management for this season.  How has Chris Search found the transition from managing the U18s to managing at National League South level?

"It's been a very enjoyable transition.  Look obviously the level is higher with regards to the quality of the players, and their individual experience and knowledge, but overall it's been a very good experience."

During the first months of the season, there have been some stand out performances alongside some disappointing results.  Is that down to having a young team?

"Personally I think it's down to a number of factors.  Firstly, yes we are a young team.  Secondly, we need to realise that some teams are almost full time, in regards to their training interaction time.  We maybe get four hours a week with our group, where as other teams in the league are getting I would think sixteen-twenty hours a week.  This obviously would play a factor, but we aren't complaining. It's just reality."

From watching on the sidelines, the team are trying to play more football in recent years.  Is that more important than results? How hard is it to get the team to continue playing that way if you've just had a bad result?

"I think the way we play is different for sure, and it's not a knock on anyone previously on how they've done things.  Myself and the coaching staff have a specific philosophy on how we want to play, and of course the results are the most important thing as that's what we're judged on, but I do believe we can get positive results whilst maintaining our preferred style of play.  I understand our style of play may be questioned and I respect everyone's views but the boys are buying into what we want and so far things are going ok."

Looking back on the games so far, the St Albans home game in the FA Cup looks like a missed opportunity, as the team deserved to win the game. How disappointing was that?

"St Albans was definitely a missed opportunity. For me in the first half, that's the best we've played this season.  Unfortunately we didn't get the result, and as much it's a frustration we can't focus on too much negativity.  We live and learn and as such, it's a case of dusting ourselves down and getting back to winning ways as soon as possible."

Enough about disappointments! What has been the stand out result so far?

"It has to be Dorking. It was my first ever game at this level, my adrenaline was sky high, but the boys were exceptional and showed some real back bone to earn the three points.  I was buzzing for about a week after that!"

What are you looking for the squad to improve on in the coming months?

"It's a case of fine tuning what we have.  We have a very good group but of course you have to strive to improve all areas.  To get into specifics as we stand it's to stay more compact out of possession and restrict the spacing between our players.  Other than that it's just pushing to improve the small margins."

As a fan it's been refreshing to watch the attacking players take risks. Is that something you're always willing your sides to do?

"The attackers are the ones that generally win the games so we need them to play in possession with freedom and enjoyment, it's something we of course try to promote but I wouldn't say it's something we've focussed specifically on. The forwards still need to pull their weight out of possession and this is something that's important to the group.  We can't have anyone slacking as our strength comes from everyone pulling in the same direction and working together.  My key is to make sure the boys enjoy what they're doing and giving them the best foundations to perform."