This is my 10th season coaching Hearts Football and in all that time, I think this is the first time I have struggled to compose my team talk after a game. I was as gutted as the team was to lose that game, in the way we did, after the way in which we played today. We really didn’t deserve to come away with nothing!

We’ve played Ashridge Park six times in our history, 3 wins & 3 loses. They’ve always had a good team and always been a good test for us. This season Ashridge are flying, as league leaders, before today’s game they had six straight wins and had scored 36 goals, as the standout team in our league we knew they would be tough to beat… but I was confident before the game that we could not only compete, but could beat them.

Over the last 5 games, The Falcons have been improving their movement, passing and defensive solidity, and in the last 3 games, their goalscoring has improved too…

Coach Nick stressed the importance of starting strong and fast today, and the Falcons did just that. We took the lead after just 4 minutes. Great wing play from Jack on the left took him to the by-line from which he played in a super cross which Stanley met and buried the ball in the back of the net for his 3rd goal of the season. Exactly the start the Falcons wanted!

We held the lead for only a few minutes though. Ashridge equalised 4 minutes later. Their giant number 9 skilfully eluded our defence to be one-one with our keeper Max, who made it hard for him, but he equalised well. (1-1)

After this moment, the game continued to be highly competitive, with both team having chances to regain the lead, but both defences coping well. Ioan, Gabriel and Cameron worked so hard to contain the Ashridge forwards and Nathan made so many interceptions today, positioning and anticipation was spot on, behind them Max was commanding his box well and ‘Sweeper Keeper’ was in full effect! We were making it so hard for Ashridge to attack in the final third, they resorted to longer range shots and it was through one of these
that they took the lead, an unsavable, blistering chip shot over Max. Great goal tbf. Even if it was against the run of play (2-1).

Anything they could do we could do better. Just four minutes later Chris brought the game back level with what, for me, was the goal of the game. Cutting in from the right he clipped a fierce strike over the keeper and into the top left corner, super goal!! (2-2) This seemed to invigorate the Falcons even more and we regained the lead just two minutes later, Eadoin feeding a ball to Marcus who expertly placed his shot beyond their flailing ‘keeper (2-3).

A point of Congratulations here, as this was Marcus’s 50th career goal for the Falcons !! Well done on your half century Marcus. You’ve always been able to score goals that no-one else can, which has included some absolute stunners over the years. My favourite is still your 30 yard lob in the cup final to give the Falcons a 4-3 lead…. Here’s to the next 50! Well done!

Seven minutes later, the Falcons further extended their lead. Unusually, I missed the build-up to this goal as I was speaking to our subs!! I just saw Chris’s shot and the net buldge!! (2-4). That was Chris’s 6th goal of the season and the third game in a row he has scored a brace…#consistant!

I was pleased with the effectiveness of our midfield today, Jack and Marcus created width and chances from the wings and Alastair and Stanley anchored the midfield really well, up against some big, skilful lads, they were in a battle, but they competed really well. Eadoin played the roaming roll well and ended up providing two assists

The first half was one of our best team performances of the season, another improvement in a sequence of improving performances since the Hawley game in late September. The Falcons took a well deserved lead into half-time. How would the second half unfold?

Well, in the second half, Ashridge showed why they are unbeaten in the league this season, they scored three goals, without reply, to win the game. But that’s not the whole story. The Falcons really made Ashridge work for every.single.goal. Liam and Raphael came on in midfield and played well, Raphael causing a number of problems on the right wing. We played with the same determination, skill and desire as we did in the first half.

We had chances too, but couldn’t quite make them stick. Ashridge changed their defence and did better against our attackers. Ashridge’s 3rd and 4th goals were simply good football, well executed, no fault or mistakes from our team, and no complaints from us. In the last minute of the game, Ashridge won a corner, I’m reliably told that there were some fouls in the box as the corner came in , I didn’t see them as I watched
the flight of the ball, more importantly, neither did the referee (I wonder if he, like me, was watching the flight of the ball too? It’s an easy mistake to make). Either way the ball ended up in our net (5-4). It was virtually the last kick of the game.

Why did the second half play out as it did? The coaches will discuss what we think between now and the next match. For me, tactically the changes we made at half time didn’t work quite as well as we hoped. Ashridge changed their formation and had a much better defensive performance. As Nick observed after the game, what we did to them in the first half , they did to us in the second… Fitness and stamina play a part too, we’ve been working on it in training and are better than we were, but always some room for improvement J

It hurts to lose like that, especially when you’ve played so well, especially when it’s right at the end, but it was a very fair game, full of skill and great football from both sides.

There’s no shame in losing to that team today, we were behind for a total of 4 minutes 10 seconds today against the best team in the league. We played excellent football, Took the lead , came from behind, and scored 4 superb goals and defended like trojans throughout.

In our 6 games this season, we’ve played 5 teams that are currently above us in the league. Apart from the Hawley game, the games we’ve lost have been by a 1 goal margin. We’ve been getting stronger and stronger as a team with every game and we must build on this for the games ahead.

COYF!!
Phill

Match details

Match date

Sat 13 Nov 2021

Kickoff

15:00

Team overview