A very pleasing start to the season with a 1-0 win over a technically competent Oxford City side who play against most of the academies on a regular basis.
We were bedding in a new system of play (4-4-2 when not in possession) in order to give us more of a compact shape defensively and asking the players to play in a variety of positions, which is great for their development and essential if we are to use the squad to it's full effect.
After just one training session, I was pleased to see the players applying what we said in the match and looking organised. As we develop this system further, it will make us hard to beat. With so many attacking players in the squad, I feel confident going forward that we will create good chances. I still want our philosophy to be to out-score the opposition, rather than concede less and this system will give us the balance we need.
The area where we did look a bit "pre-season," was where we tended to rush our final ball through to the forwards and the quality tended to suffer - especially from midfield. This was similar in terms of our end product, as we created the best chances and could have won 3-0 if we had taken our one-on-ones.
However, that will come and all in all a very useful exercise. Next up: Staines on Wednesday.
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