Game Day - Saints Win / GW Lose

Well, how quickly your fortunes can change from a great start to the day to a terrible end.  Starting the day at home watching my beloved Southampton beat Liverpool on the TV an upset in many peoples eyes but well deserved after watching the full 90 minutes.  A morning at home with the family some breakfast and premier league soccer what more do you need?  Then it was on to Mount Vernon for a local match up v Navy which we knew going in was going to be a tough game and wow did that come true.

The first half we never really got going and if I was honest we were lucky to be losing by only the one goal.  A technically poor performance and inability to keep the ball kept the pressure on our back 4 and we were never able to recover.  One thing you can control even when your having a bad game is your effort and workrate and I think that many of us today lacked whats needed to be successful as an individual and a team by not quite pushing themselves this in turn gave the opposition more time and space and really forced us onto the back foot.

Having got through the first half 1-0 down I was optimistic for the second half knowing that we could only improve on our performance and with a little luck we could easily get ourselves back in the game.  An improved second half saw us at least compete better and pressure the opposition but Navy goals at critical times put an end to any comeback that we may have had.  Both second half goals came at a time when we were probably having our best spells which was an even bigger blow to take.  As much as it hurts to say it, it was plain to see that today we were outplayed in every department.  Teams can have off days and today we chose to do just that against a well organized team that punished us for doing so.  Not only that but it poured down most of the game so I couldn't even enjoy the weather.

Today is certainly a day when I reserved my post game comments to the players until I have a chance to absorb what just happened and tried to get some positives from the game.  Its back to the drawing board tomorrow and next week I hope to see a response in practice from the players as we prepare for our next game against UMBC. 

Raise High Moment of the Day
Southampton beating Liverpool.