Snatched from the Jaws of Victory....

Connah's Quay Tigers Vs Flint Town United Juniors

Now I know how Inter Milan fans felt after the 2005 European Champions League Final in Istanbul!

We were 3-0 up in the first 10 minutes and coasting. Hard running, attacking the ball, finding space breaking fast in numbers and we ripped apart the Connahs Quay defence like they'd never played football before. Finally it looked as though it was going to be our day. Then just before the end of the first quarter they scored against the run of play to end the quarter 3-1.

I'm not sure what happened then. But somehow we were second to every ball and walking, with a number of players with their heads down and looking either disinterested or like they'd already won.

Despite that our forward play looked sharp and there was a lot of attempt to pass the ball around, it was at the back we suffered. Yet again failing to clear again and again from in front of our own goal. Our goalkeeper made a couple of excellent saves but it wasn't enough as the tigers rolled in 4 further scrappy goals where we just didn't do the basics despite screams from the sidelines to "just hoof it" away.

That's not to say we didn't have our own goal-mouth scrambles in front of the Connahs Quay goal. In fact one of them seemed to take about ten minutes and had every single member of out team lining up to lash the ball home with Tigers players throwing themselves in front of it time and time again but it just wouldn't go in. All credit to the Tigers defence for their stubborn bravery.

Then as we started to try and push forwards we found ourselves back to our old ways - with 3-4 boys ball chasing and often being able to throw a blanket over the entire mid field as they all tried so hard to get involved and make a difference.

Its hard not to get dispirited on the sidelines when we see the lads working so hard and playing some really good football only to see their lead disappear because at the back they forgot the basics and got down hearted again.

It WILL come. Of that I have no doubt. And next week its Aston Park. Dare I say we beat them 8-0 last year? Or would that be tempting fate?

Alan

On a different note, I apologise for the slightly intermittent nature of these comments, I know I missed a match report or two. But does anyone care? It would be good to see some comments or perhaps some other input from the parents? Do the lads read this? is there something they would like to see here?