mr goodwin fm career

This was a crunch game. For the first time it was the potential end of the season. Our strength this season has been our defence and our ability to strangle teams. Today we needed one of them performances. The obvious statement is if we could keep a clean sheet, we are in the final. I did feel however if it went to extra time we would be at a disadvantage as the fitness level amongst the squad was not as high as Queens Park’s.

I elected to deploy as a 4-4-2 as it was our game and we needed to dictate the flow of play. As expected Queens Park went with 4-5-1.

The first twenty passed without too many opportunities for either side but the best aspect was the fact Queens Park were being smothered. They did have two clear cut chances according to the stats but I wouldn’t have called them that.

As half time approached they did unleashed a furious five minutes where it was very much backs to the wall and we got pulled out of shape and didn’t have time to reorganise but the men hung on well and the half came to an end tied.

I debated long and hard at half time whether to switch to 4-5-1 and match Queens Park and grind it out but I elected to remain at 4-4-2 and attempt reassert control.

From the start of the second half Queens Park didn’t manage to test our keeper and with an hour gone I made a switch and put Butcher on in place of Ronald. Within three minutes he received the ball and drove down the right and crossed a perfect ball which eluded the keeper and defender and Eaglesham was on hand to tap the ball home from a couple of yards. This now swung the tie in our favour massivly.

The fight went out of Queens Park and we pushed the ball around very fluidly culminating in Butcher again driving down the wing and pulling it back to Stirling who hit a first time outrageous cross across the panalty area which was controlled instantly by Spaul and tuck away with his next touch.

Game over.

Queens Park must have realised it was done because the didn’t launch any attacks of note and subsequently withdrew for the challenges in the midfield. We could have had a third but it was ruled out for offside.

The game ran down with little further incident and we were in the final.

The players need recovering for the first leg in three days but the stamina and fitness levels are rising with each passing game so I see no major problems.