I believe you defend from the front, and as a team. And the more we give away cheap ball, and fail to make it stick up top, the more pressure it invites on what is looking a porous, fragile defence. Its okay Vaz Te and Davies scoring, but what I wouldnt give for a bit of nous up there, a Ward/Shipperley type that retains it, allowing movement from others. It settles the rest of the team too, when there is a reliable out-ball. Far too often now our defence look like wobbly jelly. But the best way to sum up BFC under Hillcroft, would be 'a confidence team'.. When we are on it, and things are going well, we look a top top side in this division. And not just as a team, as individuals. McNulty, Done, Addison and Perkins for example, can and have, looked proper quality in those uber-confident displays. Conversely, when we are lacking that confidence, we look a relegation side. And strangely, I have seen too many games in which the lads' confidence has gone from sky-high to rock-bottom. Over 90 minutes. I hear the fatigue excuse and buy it somewhat. But I think we have too many soft players mentally, who instead of rolling their sleeves up, seem to pack it in knowing Keith will defend em. I hope thats not the case, and while we hear him telling us its all ok, and he wont blame them, I think its a different story behind the scenes. But whether the players can learn, and improve the things I mention, is hard to know. Its becoming an all too familiar story of late. We take a lead we cant retain, give sloppy goal after sloppy goal away, and once behind it is game over. We know this group can work hard, and battle, but seemingly, only when in the game. I dont see much of those qualities when we are chasing a game. So, you may think I am down, feeling negative or whatever, Im not. Ive never doubted for one minute that we are in stage one of a work-in-progress. And I write today off as its of no consequence to the ultimate aim which IMO, is to improve on last years finish. And I am more than confident that we will do that. I reckon we are good for another 25 points or so, which this year would see us higher than last terms 17th position. Onwards and upwards. We move on, and any other cliche that fits... YOU REDS
Good post Whitey, I agree with most of what you have said and by the sounds of his interview tonight so does Hill re: Vaz Te. To be honest I thought Hills summary was spot on and very frank particularly about the players and mistakes costing us goals. We need more players in to give Hill more options, hopefully they'll be in by Saturday so we can get things back on track in the league. We were beaten by a better team today but during that 20 minute patch when we got our second we saw the best of this team and then it was undone by another individual error. I wasn't too upset today, we'll be ok but we have to stop the errors and play better when things aren't going well.
Has been all season. We were just fortunate that Steeles excellent performance saved the blushes of our weak back four quite regularly.
