So after the encouraging performance but disappointing result of our first game the next one was a home game against Colchester, despite wanting to build some first team consistency and form I was concerned about tiring out my players too early in the season so decided to rest the whole outfield 10, my starting lineup was thus:
Code:
Grant
Watson Hinds Bullen Gilbert
Johnson Folly Lunt O'brien
Tudgay Clarke
The hardest choice was who to play at RB and who to play at CB, Watson and Bullen can both play RB but they don't really have the legs for that position anymore, Hinds supposedly can play RB but on talking to him about playing there I wasn't too impressed with his attitude and felt that if I played him there I would get about 15-20% less from him than if I played him at CB, so I decided to go with Watson at RB and Hinds and Bullen at CB.
The match kicked off, the one thing I told my players before the start was that I wanted them to keep control of the ball early doors, try to pass it around and be patient with the ball, watch how Colchester respond to us keeping the ball and see if holes appear in their defence, well I must say the team really listened to me, we started really brightly and passed the ball around really well in the early minutes, Colchester hardly got a touch, in the 9th minute a wonderful, flowing passing move which start with Watson at RB ended in Clarke playing a lovely 1-2 with Folly resulting in a low pass putting him clean through, Clarke had 1 touch to control it, a 2nd to get it out of his feet then bang, bottom right corner, keeper had no chance, our first goal of the season and Clarke's first of the season, great for the big lad who always needs a confidence boost as he has that kind of personality.
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=f910e9oaSlo
(better quality daily motion version)
Clarke was clearly buzzing and it showed in the rest of his play, 3 minutes later a Johnson cross from that right was met with a towering header by Clarke but unfortunately the ball crashed against the left hand post and Colchester cleared it to safety. Later on in that half Clarke had another header crash off the other post, he could have had a hattrick and the game would have been ours......
Unfortunately the rest of the half went downhill from there and Clarke's performance was the only real bright note, Clarke's goal and escape on the post stung them in to action, our defence was caught ball watching as they had it to the right of our goal, Watson didn't close down their winger fast enough, ball's crossed in, Grant's rooted to his line, Lisbie heads it into the net, 1-1.
less than 10 minutes later an almost carbon copy, cross from our right, Grant rooted to his line, Lisbie heads in, 1-2 to Colchester.
To say I'm displeased would be an understatement, to be leading 1-0, hitting the post, then suddenly you're losing 2-1 is a gutting feeling, unfortunately for the Owls fans it's a feeling they know only too well, but credit to them they didn't stop singing throughout the half.
I urged my team forward as despite the fact some of them seemed to be playing with shellshock I really though we could get at Colchester and equalise before half time, perhaps that was a mistake on my part as we pushed up too high, Colchester counter attacked, my defenders played a very poorly timed offside trap that failed miserably and their forward ran clean through to score into the empty net, 1-3 Colchester
Half time.
My substitution options were limited, a number of players on the bench were still fatigued from the first game so I decided to make my changes with the players that were already on the field, I switched Bullen to RB and Watson to CB, O'brien to CM and Lunt who I felt had been weak in the centre to LM, upfront I switched Clarke and Tudgay around, which meant that Clarke was playing on the right of the two and would be dropping a little deeper at times to receive the ball as Colchester clearly could not handle him the way he was playing today.
Second half kicks off, the changes seem to be working well, cross comes in from the left, Clarke is under heavy pressure from a defender but he manages to get his head on the ball and it loops over the keeper into the top right corner, 2-3, now we're talking, something we can build on......
Unfortunately this again spurred Colchester into life, they attacked down the right and Bullen showing his age responded far too slow to the danger, a combination of Grant and Watson cleared the ball to safety.
We attack again, ball is fed through to Tudgay, he turns and shoots on goal, their keeper saves it but can't hold it, ball falls to Clarke, bang, goal, 3-3, Clarke jumps to celebrate, the fans jump to celebrate, I jump to celebrate, the wife celebrates but struggles to keep her Tablet PC on her knee as she's trying to work beside me!
We're back on terms, I decide to take off Bullen, bring Wood on at CB and move Hinds over to RB, he's going to play there and that's that, if he doesn't give me a performance there will be words after the match.
We're in complete control for the rest of the match, the equaliser knocked all of the spirit out of Colchester but unfortunately we just couldn't get a winner.
Final score 3-3, at 1-3 down I would have taken that so there's no point being greedy, a Leon Clarke hattrick is a good start to the season.
Next match, QPR away, I felt we could get something from that but unfortunately I was wrong, QPR go 2-0 with 2 soft headed goals, we manage to pull one back late on with Jeffers' first for the club, a typical "fox in the box" tap in at close range after a pullback from the left. Unfortunately Clarke was nothing like the player of last week and he was substituted in the middle of the second half.
After the first 3 matches we have only 1 point and are in 21st place, the board have already told me they won't stand too many more mediocre results and my performance has to improve, a little harsh I felt after only 3 matches but Sheffield Wednesday aren't exactly known to show patience with managers......
Next match is 24th placed Coventry at home, we're both on 1 point so we really could use a win to get our season started properly.
On a more worrying note, we still haven't heard from Rocky Lekaj or his brother Leon, the club are trying to contact relatives in Kosovo and Norway to see if they've heard from either of the brothers. If anyone has heard anything please contact the club immediately, a video about the Lekaj brothers can be found on Youtube:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=TN35H-VBkOI
