The Blues performance was one of basic adequacy, far more than perfection, at the Impact Arena this afternoon. Whilst we were always in control of the game, we lacked ingenuity and urgency in our play, which suggests the players will need time to get back to full fitness.
It must be said, the atmosphere at the game was very quiet. In my interview with reporter Ashley Wilkinson, he said his belief that there was much to enjoy about non-league football. Admittedly this was only one game, but it severely lacked in the pride and passion of league football. Without being disrespectful, most Alfreton fans looked like either elderly men, or families who couldn’t support Nottingham Forest! I was hoping for one-on-one opposing fan banter, but there was none of that, Alfreton fans didn’t even sing for the entire match.
As speculated he might, Clark used a fluid 3-5-2 formation, although he billed the friendly as more about fitness than tactics. He fielded 2 different teams for each half, with the Shamrock game on Monday in mind. Unfortunately a few of the latest signings – Adeyami, Bartley, Burn, Green – were deemed unavailable to play for fitness reasons, but they’ll be good to go for the Ireland tour.
After a persistent piece of work from Akwasi Asante, Zigic stood on the edge of the box, and fired the ball over, to the sound of ironic cheers from the Blues fans. The fans had a strange attitude to Zigic. In the early stages chanting his name, yet also singing: ‘Zigic for chairman’, referring to his ludicrous wages. I don’t understand why instead of ignoring Zigic, fans seem to mindlessly support him and treat his spoiling of the club as some joke. Doesn’t make sense to me.
Alfreton punished the miss, by finding an early flaw in our wingback tactic. Mitch Hancox was found isolated in the left back area, allowing a ball to be played across the box for their forward to take advantage of the confusion, and prod home at the back post. This flexible system may work for us if we can get the fitness in the team right, as it has for Hull and Watford. But it will mean our 3-man defence will need much time to settle into a working unit, and dedicate a lot of their training programme to improve upon defensive positioning and organisation.
A disappointing start, but Blues controlled the game from that point onwards, with Kobe Arthur often at centre of things. His link-up play was integral to our attack, and his work rate frequently brought our wing-backs into play. It was a very nice piece of deceptive skill from Arthur which freed up Neal Eardley on the right to swing in a cross, Asante’s effort was blocked, but the ball fell nicely for Ollie Lee to time his run accordingly and hammer the ball into the roof of the net. 1-1, and more songs of ironic humour from the Blues following, this time: “We’re gunna win the league”
Although the ball broke rather kindly for him, it was a convincing finish from Lee, who I’d had my doubts about. Partly because of his dad’s connections with Clark, I questioned the signing of Ollie Lee given his lack of experience, and still do to an extent, but I’m willing to give him a chance after that.
And the same goes with Liam Davis. He’s at the peak of his career, and has only ever played in the lower leagues, with very poor assist stats for a wide midfielder. I’m not wholly swayed on him, and would still take Shane Ferguson instead in a heartbeat, but Davis did have an encouraging game. His commitment and energy was definitely there, and he had the confidence to nutmeg his opponent in one move, so I’m happy to reserve my view.
The new, younger players approached the game with a certain swagger, which was enjoyable to watch. Every time they attempted a delicate flick, or an ambitious pass, they didn’t always have the experience to execute it, but they always seemed to believe it could be done. There was an outward confidence about them in that season. For me, that’s a sign of significant potential.
Another Zigic moment came, as he rounded the keeper and the goal was at his mercy. But instead of slotting it in, he seemed to wait until the defence got back into position, before chipping it to the back post for no-one in particular. I was getting myself a can of pop when we scored our second goal, an o.g. from Eardley’s cross just before half-time, to give us the lead.
At half-time, the entire team was swapped. I theorized that this would work in our favour, as we’d have a new group of fresh faces on the field, whereas Alfreton only made intermittent changes. Hopefully we’d overpower them in the second half and end up winning at a canter.
We did score early, as Novak grafted down the left hand side to create space for Shinnie, who hit a light shot, which deflected off an Alfreton defender to wrongfoot the keeper. 3-1.
But this was as good as it got for us. The likes of Reilly, Ambrose and Burke didn’t break into the penalty area as often as they might have done, although I would put much of this down to fitness. Shinnie’s movement was classy, he created a point-blank header for himself. Though he perhaps should have scored it, few players would have had the cunningness to create the chance in the first place. In fact, Shinnie’s all round performance today has led to fans dubbing him “Shinniesta”! That might just catch on.
The game seemed to peter out in the final stages, so much so that the fans began chanting about Darren Randolph, shouting his name and singing: “Darren, do a gambol”!
But the game itself became a little dour. Alfreton never looked like threatening us, and in a way that encouraged the semi-laziness in our play for the final minutes. There were quite a few misplaced passes, that players weren’t prepared to run for, which they might been in different circumstances. Mentally, a lot of the players seemed to be waiting for the whistle.
But it’s difficult to be enforcefully critical of the team. We got a win, in the sunshine, and the game was always going to be about getting the players towards the standard fitness levels. The team is obviously a long way off where we’ll aim to be come August fitness wise, but this is inevitable. We’re up, we’re running, and prepared for the tour of Ireland in the coming days.
FIRST HALF TEAM:
Doyle- 5. Not at fault for goal, had little else to test him.
Kalenda- 4. Injured early on, could have covered our right-hand post better for Alfreton goal.
Robinson- 5. Difficult to see, his defending was at other end.
Hancox- 5. Wingback system exposed Hancox for goal, hard to blame him for that.
Eardley- 7. Decent work rate, put crosses in for both goals. May provide us with width.
Elliott- 6. Though rarely had direct impact, his experience was important, at the heart of our play.
Lee- 7. Took goal with aplomb, otherwise played short, neat passes. I could be swayed by him.
Davis- 7. Similarly, I doubted his track record, but was impressed. Looked confident and strong on the ball.
Arthur- 7. A good performance. Provided us with moments of flair, made some lovely touches, looked to be heavily involved in advanced moves.
Asante- 6. Prepared to run at defence, pace and power was effective in places. His swift closing down improved our control of the game, yet lacked the cleverness in movement to create a chance for himself.
Zigic- 1. Dreadful performance, two very scoreable opportunities of which neither he hit, abysmal work rate.
SECOND HALF TEAM:
Randolph- 5. Don’t recall him having a save to make.
Spector- 7. Looked pretty solid, seemed to win every ball, never gave anything away.
Mullins- 6. Slotted in at centre-back reasonably well, but wasn’t tested much.
Fry- 6. As above, but Fry can take more in morale due to first Blues appearance.
Higgins- 7. Didn’t put a foot wrong, held ground defensively, was prepared to make adventurous runs where possible.
Reilly- 6. Seems to have added a directness to his passing style, which has led to the occassional stray ball. His work ethic was good though, and he often helped out in the open full-back areas.
Ambrose- 4. A pretty quiet game I thought. Failed to convert having almost rounded the keeper, hit a very poor free-kick.
Bell- 4. Came across slightly clumsy, his timing of tackles left a little to be desired, seemed overly focused on solo-effort.
Shinnie- 7. An element of fortune to his goal, but his movement was clever.
Novak- 5. Can’t fault his willingness to track back and involve himself in play, but he wasn’t found in the box enough. I doubt his goalscoring ability.
By Gabriel Sutton
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