Managers Report - Sat 25/09/21 - Parkfield 2 - 5 Old Woodhouseians Reserves

CLICK FOR FULL REPORT...

Parkfield were playing their fourth game in a row at Bushey’s Met Police Ground on a perfect footballing day. After a pretty decent start to the season we came down to earth with a bump. Overall it wasn’t a bad performance but due to a shortage of regulars and some horrible mistakes which were punished clinically by a tidy Woodhousians outfit, the Reds came off on the wrong end of a 2-5 scoreline.

It was plain to see that the black and gold Woods side had been together for a number of years. In fact, their classy left winger reminded me of a game in which Parkfield (who were down to 10 men) were leading 4-1 with 15 minutes to go and managed to only just scrape a 4-4 draw in a thriller from 3 years prior! Only 3 Parkfield lads remain from that day and only 2 were on show on Saturday (Captain Jason Hiskey was unavailable due to work commitments. He was also unavailable for 80 minutes of the 4-4 game due to being sent off after 10 minutes!!)

Woods took the game to Parkfield with a number of forays into the Reds territory, attempting many long diagonal balls behind Josh (playing his first 90 minutes for a year) at right back, for the Woods ‘Jared Bowen’ left wing look-a-like to work off. Josh probably didn’t know what hit him in the first 10 minutes. He hit back himself with a number of ‘Beckham-esque’ passes into the path of the hungry Nathan Mottley (also playing his first 90 minutes), who was a thorn in the Woods side all afternoon. After the initial flurry of Woods attacks the Reds notched first, Nathan rounding the keeper and neatly finishing from an angle. 1-0. An immediate drop in concentration allowed a cross from the left into Reds box where nobody took responsibility and a weak clearance landing at the woods lad on the edge of the box who placed a shot beyond Veitchy in goal. 1-1. Parkfield continued to attack and didn’t allow this to affect them. However, another drop in concentration by the normally reliable Dom, dwelling on the ball at last man position, saw Woods forward rob him and place a shot into Reds net. Veitchy understandably voicing his dis-approval at the hesitancy of his defenders, seemed to have an effect as the half-time approached. Reds finished the half strongly and had at least two golden opportunities to go in level however some poor decisions prevented us from doing so. Halftime 1-2

After moving Lamar forward from central defence into the centre of the park and Pablo to sweeper, Parkfield had a much better balance (great coaching Josh!) in the second half and began to attack at every opportunity. Waves of Reds attacks came to nothing and Woods continued their tactic of 60 yard balls into the heart of the reds Defence. Again, concentration issues affected the Reds who conceded a third just as it appeared we may level the scores. 1-3. One foray into the box by Lamar drew a clumsy woods challenge and the resulting penalty was superbly converted. 2-3. With no options from the bench to freshen things up Parkfield conceded two more avoidable goals. Mental and physical tiredness affecting our reaction times. 2-5

All in all, a creditable performance from a depleted squad who would have come away with something from the game had more bodies been available.