Been Thinking About Merv?

[Merv]

I heard loads of shouts of, ‘Hooooofffff…. ‘ whenever Aveley played a long ball out of midfield that, IMO, is totally unfair. Aveley played the long ball to great effect; not pretty, but to great effect. Those long ‘hoofs’ invariably went over the top of our defence and their attack was ready to run forward and collect. We had very little idea of how to fight this off and relied very headily, as said, on Dobbo and the likes, to get in some timely tackles. We also relied on Mel at the back who, I thought, was the busier of the two keepers. Canvey, on the other hand, relied just as heavily on ‘hoofs’ from the back but ours were often just wild boots at the ball that went either high or wide (or both), but rarely to a yellow shirt. On the few occasions when we did string a series of passes together, I thought we were terrific. But there simply weren’t enough moments like that to say it was a truly great performance.

 

Aveley’s other successful ploys were (i) to use players who could run at our defence (and there were plenty of them) and (ii) to make excellent use of free kicks.

 

Someone has already said it, but we rode our luck yesterday and took all three points. Nothing wrong with that and for every game where we are lucky there will be at least two others, somewhere in the season, where we are unlucky. That’s the game of football. A promotion season is not made up of 40 brilliant games but a mix of brilliance, luck, grind and perhaps just a sprinkling of genius. We’ve almost got the ingredients right but the balance is not yet perfect.

 

[YELLOW]

This was three valuable points. We didn't play that well but the points will be crucial come the end of the season.

[ronin]

Another scrappy game between 2 sides who play opposite styles of football. After our great start we lost control of the game and really let Aveley come at us. Full marks to the management team for changing our formation at halftime and pushing Kreyling into the big hole between our midfield and defence, his presence there really helped us get a grip on the game again.

 

Ryan took his goal really well as did Crow, special mention must go to Dobbo for his 2nd half performance.

 

There`s a match report available on the Aveley website

 

 

[YELLOW]

Read the match report on the Aveley site yesterday. Would say it's a fair reflection of the game.

[A Non E Mouse]

Think it's all been summed up rather nicely and wouldn't disagree with any points that have been made.

 

Aveley certainly play a different style to Canvey but as mentioned when they did strike the ball forward it was with purpose and well aimed - a very quick and speedy team - although it appeared to me that they took every opportunity to moan. It caused us all sorts of problems until the break when a little rejig seemed to sort it out. A very hard earnt 3 points in a game where I was sceptical about getting anything.

 

Nice to have the experience of Mel to step in when Ricky got injured - and what a fantastic save in the 2nd half.

 

Suprised Aveley have dropped to 10th as I could see them causing many teams a problem. Noticed from their match report that they have Maldon up next. Lets hope they bounce back and cause them problems.

[ronin]

Originally Posted By: A Non E Mouse

although it appeared to me that they took every opportunity to moan.

I think that may well stem from their coach Graig Edwards

[pabird]

The shock is not that Edwards has a team on the slide its that any group of players ever felt able to be motivated by him at anytime.

Apart from the continual abuse and mouthy comments to his players and officials he kept his lactic acid charged players on the pitch for a good 30/40 minutes after the game being berated (or re-educated) into his and his coaches way of thinking? Sorry about the contradiction in terms, after the re-education it was too late for any sort of warm down.

We won! Were we lucky? No we outscored them and that counts as a win. We did set up a play for the first goal scored we did after half time out think then in moving Dave K forward ten yards and negating 50% of their aerial raids.

1. We did attempt football on the floor

2. We did with one touch and a pass "set-up" the first goaL.

3. Our young lads were affected by the physicality of the opposition.

4. Mr Edwards team did focus on the long (well delivered) ball forward and we did defend that assault very well.

 

what Averly did not do was control second ball and set shooting opportunities.

We will learn Mr Edwards is too old for such mental gymnastics.

 

[ronin]

There`s not much doubt who controls the side at Aveley but offically Edwards is the coach and Steve Browne is the manager.

 

Can you imagine a Graig Edwards-George Borg combination

[YELLOW]

Was funny watching Edwards after the game as we walked out of the ground. He had a face like thunder and I honestly thought he was going to kick off with the Canvey support the way he was staring at us!!!

 

Prefered Tony Cross' antics!!!!

[YELLOW]

Originally Posted By: A Non E Mouse

Noticed from their match report that they have Maldon up next. Lets hope they bounce back and cause them problems.

Drew 1-1 tonight. We now have a game in hand on Maldon and victory in that would take us 6 points clear of them with a superior goal difference.