On the day Juan Mata arrived at Manchester United by helicopter, I was expecting to see Jose Mourinho arrive at Fortress Millworth to oversee his potential replacement, Joe. Joe’s awareness and quickness to realise an astute pass today were reminiscent of the magical Spaniard. However as the match wore on, all the boys lack of match practise since before Christmas became evident. It developed into a disjointed performance despite the scoreline at the end.
Will opened the scoring early on, and despite what I have said to the chairman, this boy is a little bit better than I let on today.
Joe before he faded a little topped his performance with a well deserved goal.
Liam scored from the middle and though his willingness to run is fantastic, his realisation that he can’t do every job on the pitch actually adds to the team performance.
Early in the second half Harry turned his man superbly and ran into the open space on the right wing,but unfortunately the goalkeeper gathered his cross.
As the second half wore on the and the performance got a little sloppy Shinfield changed the formation a bit and put Joe up front and Will dropped deep, to his credit though he looked a little lost, he never stopped working and claimed a final goal before the end.
But the real issue for Shinfield were just not being organised while defending and they had the look of a team who still hadn’t digested the turkey. So a lot to work on for Tuesday boys, I hope they are all ready for the bleep test.
Jzsiah claimed his second Man of the Match award for the season and it was thoroughly deserved, he commanded his penalty box and never looked troubled although he was called upon to make a few excellent saves. Let’s hope he keeps the good work because this boy has a lot of potential.
But while on the talk this week has focused on Old Trafford and Stamford Bridge, the real stars were on display at Millworth Lane who in spite of the performance, showed how to dig out a result.
Pitchside
Ryan Blandville