City 3 Welling Utd 0
Feb 11, 2023 21:39:00 GMT
Post by Rijs on Feb 11, 2023 21:39:00 GMT
Another strong and pleasing performance from the Hoops today. Although Welling had a lot of possession and won many corners, our boys defended so effectively that their opponents were unable to create clear-cut scoring chances, apart from one early effort and the penalty midway through the second half, both of which were well saved by our new keeper Adnan Kanuric, who I must say looks very promising. (He would have to be good to be an improvement on Ben Dudzinski, now at Dartford.) Of course, had the penalty gone in we might have had a more anxious final quarter and maybe even a different result; such are the fine margins of football. Instead, City regained control thereafter and a tiring Welling team, who had played midweek and worked hard in the first half to play a high press, could do nothing threatening. In fact, they found it hard to get the ball off us - our passing was slick and accurate, and at times a succession of one-touch passes opened gaps, but we did not exploit these enough, until Josh Parker got our deserved third goal at the end. He took it well.
With the caveat about our shooting, which was often wayward today, there was nothing else wrong with our performance. Every man put in a good shift and they played very well as a team. If we lost the ball we worked hard to get it back. If one man was beaten, there was always another one covering. We can sing the praises of our creative and attacking players, and I have said before what a delight Zac is to watch at present - I think he has never played better in his career so far, and he seems to be enjoying his football despite the close attention he gets from opponents - but all that is built on the foundation of work at the back, and the defence has looked very solid indeed recently.
Once again, I was impressed by the athleticism and work rate of Josh Ashby. It was not mentioned in the match report on the club website, but he oh so nearly scored in the first minute, and he created the goal for Zac at the start of the second period, too. Our three in the middle, with Reece on the field for the 350th time for us today (including substitutions), were just everywhere, and they know each other's game so well now that they barely have to look up to find one another with passes and lay-offs. They are well-balanced as a unit. And up front, Josh Parker has a physical presence and is making such a difference even when he is not scoring goals, which he also happens to do rather frequently. Klaidi had a good game today as well, even if he was a bit lucky to score thanks to a goalkeeper error. He was quick and skilful and was linking up much better with all of his teammates this week.
The proof of the pudding is that we have players with the quality of Joe Iaciofano and Jack Davies on the bench, yet Ross did not see any need to make a single substitution today, so well were the starting eleven still playing in added time. I hope we can play this well again next week when we face a Worthing team which has been around or above our position in the play-off places for several months now - a real six-pointer to look forward to!
With the caveat about our shooting, which was often wayward today, there was nothing else wrong with our performance. Every man put in a good shift and they played very well as a team. If we lost the ball we worked hard to get it back. If one man was beaten, there was always another one covering. We can sing the praises of our creative and attacking players, and I have said before what a delight Zac is to watch at present - I think he has never played better in his career so far, and he seems to be enjoying his football despite the close attention he gets from opponents - but all that is built on the foundation of work at the back, and the defence has looked very solid indeed recently.
Once again, I was impressed by the athleticism and work rate of Josh Ashby. It was not mentioned in the match report on the club website, but he oh so nearly scored in the first minute, and he created the goal for Zac at the start of the second period, too. Our three in the middle, with Reece on the field for the 350th time for us today (including substitutions), were just everywhere, and they know each other's game so well now that they barely have to look up to find one another with passes and lay-offs. They are well-balanced as a unit. And up front, Josh Parker has a physical presence and is making such a difference even when he is not scoring goals, which he also happens to do rather frequently. Klaidi had a good game today as well, even if he was a bit lucky to score thanks to a goalkeeper error. He was quick and skilful and was linking up much better with all of his teammates this week.
The proof of the pudding is that we have players with the quality of Joe Iaciofano and Jack Davies on the bench, yet Ross did not see any need to make a single substitution today, so well were the starting eleven still playing in added time. I hope we can play this well again next week when we face a Worthing team which has been around or above our position in the play-off places for several months now - a real six-pointer to look forward to!