By London Falcons manager Craig Randall
London Falcons 1 Village Manchester 4
GFSN Cup Semi Final • Sunday, 17th February, 2008 • Charlton Athletic Training Gd

This was a game any Falcon would want to forget especially me.

The line up was changed slightly with Lewis going up front and Walton in midfield to replace Edeki and Maughan.

The plan seemed to be doing ok for the first 10 minutes with Falcons passing well and matching Manchester across the pitch, however 10 or so minutes into the game Manchester had their first attempt on goal which went in and everything went pear shaped.

We suddenly panicked and lost our nerve. A second shot minutes later by Manchester found the net also and then heads dropped and at which point it was clear to see that we were certainly not beating this Manchester team. Not because we couldn't but because we didn't believe.

Marshall up front suddenly didn't look likely to receive any ball to him and this was due to either players not trusting him enough to do anything with the ball or they just simply couldn't get the ball forward so I was forced to make my first change of the game putting Hyde up front to add that physical element. This did improve slightly with Hyde making some decent runs but nothing solid came of it.

The arguing and shouting which has made a bad impression of the club before had returned and all players started pointing fingers at each other. The truth was EVERYONE had a bad game and no one could honestly say they worked as a team that day.

We did have a consolation goal through Lewis Marshall when we was reintroduced in the second half and with a few other chances that went begging, including an effort off the bar from Cowell, we could have gotten back into the game but as mentioned the belief was never really there.

2 further goals from Manchester with Marshalls goal sandwiched in between ended our cup run and left a lot of Falcons feeling dejected and out of sorts.

As manager of the club I looked at the players after the game and saw the ugly side to Falcons, a side of things I detest! People arguing, people blaming others, people wanting to do things their way and generally giving up. There was no unity at all and it was purplexing considering the success we had up until that point.

The match report released to the papers the next day were less than kind to Falcons but a deserved report none-the-less.

I hope players read this and understand that to any team to be successful, they need to be united as all times and keep believing - win, loose or draw. There will be times in the future that we will have loosing streaks and the club must remain united and keep believing all the time otherwise the club will crumble.

As for Manchester I'd like to congratulate them on their victory and we wish them every success in the final.

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