Maroubra United 5 - 3 Coogee United

Goal Scoring Feast Secures First Up Win For MUFC O35s

Congratulations team on a hard fought victory, the first of what I envisage will be many for this year. I see today's come from behind 5-3 victory as a game that we can reflect on to gain not only confidence but self belief that no matter what the situation is we can compete, score goals and rise against whatever the opposition can throw at us.

What can I say about the game? The first 20 minutes I am sure everyone will agree was not the most comfortable and I for one was almost reaching for the blood pressure tablets. Personally, I believe this was due to not having a proper pre-game preparation of warming up as we were not switched on early but again this is something we can discuss and work on over time.

As for the rest of the game, I was delighted with how we fought back. Despite being 2-1 down, everyone got on with the game, no one argued and re-applied themselves and backed each other. As I eluded to above, this is something we need to bottle so when we face these situations in the future we can draw on that experience and rise against the challenge. What is even more encouraging was the fact we learnt from last week's game where we were leading at half time, but this week we did not go into our shells, we backed ourselves and kept attacking and this eventually paid dividends.

It appears the Motivational clips that Frankie and I have added to the Blogspot recently are already reaping some rewards!!

I was very happy to see us playing a more attacking game today. Our previous results were built on a strong defence and although Coogee put 3 past us, 2 of them were very early on and although they tested us throughout the game, the backline was solid so well done to all of you that filled in those areas. Special note has to go to Jason Liao (the player I had dubbed in the player profiles in my original blog as our X Factor in the tight matches) for his tireless defensive work on the left and right back, thwarting their wingers from supplying crosses.

As for the goals, they were all a blur for me so I will let you the team, through the comments section to talk about them but I know Nelson and Steve scored goals while Tom had a "quiet day at the office" with a poultry 3 goals. Having said that, Tom has already shattered last year's Golden Boot record of 3 goals with a season tally to date of 5 goals and after striking up a formidable partnership with Nelson today up front, and with our midfield trio to return, I dare say we may need to hire a statistician to keep up with the goal tallies.

Special thanks to our O45s reinforcements in Steve and Marj  who worked tirelessly in midfield today and Jimmy for his cameo appearance late in the game - thanks boys. Marj, your second half effort was fantastic and provided some much needed starch in the midfield to break up their options and Steve - well done and congratulations for scoring our first goal.

Big thanks to Scott for the beers and shirts this week and as mentioned, you have the difficult task of selecting the 3,2,1 Players Player of the Year votes

Lastly, as many of you may have noticed I, along with Assistant Peter, were working overtime in the second half - most notably my sideline comments, motivation, subs, tactical and positional changes so if I got offside with anyone during this period I apologise (but get used to it haha) as I was trying to get the right structure for us to secure the 3 points. Having said that, if I do lose my voice at any stage of the season I will be forwarding all medical bills to the team for reimbursement!!

Well done all and enjoy the 3 points this week...

Team Sheet:

Scott, Frank, Dennis, Geoff, Jason, Brett, Rod, Steve (1), Wayne, Tom(3), Con. Subs: Nelson (1), Marj

We have a special training session planned on Wednesday. We will be training or having a kick around with the O45s teams starting at 2pm with a BBQ planned at 4pm so see you all there at Coral Sea. 

Leo