ONE League - Durham versus York A
Posted on 13/12/07 14:40
Buoyant with our success against Byker, last Sunday the York A team converged on Durham for more of the same. The last encounter between York and Durham, a friendly match earlier in the summer at York went York's way, so whilst I wasn't expecting a whitewash, I was feeling confident we could beat them again.
Oh dear.
I could give all sorts of excuses as to what happened. We didn't have any substitutes (even though we'd expected one). Neither Ali nor I were feeling particularly well. My snorkel started leaking resulting in me trying to breathe water (hence me jumping out part way through the second half - I needed to grab a spare). Seeing a puck against the wall and thinking Durham had scored - only to realise play was carrying on and the light green puck was a goalpost, not the dark green puck the match was being played with.
But, to be quite frank, we were outclassed.
Actually, it wasn't that bad - the second half was a lot closer. We hardly got a look in in the first half, but in the second half defending the shallow end was easier - especially as the deep end is 9 feet rather than the 6 were used to (oops, that sounds like another excuse...) and I think we were getting it together a bit more as a team. If the first half had been the same as the second, then I think it could have gone either way.
So, what went wrong?
Firstly, Durham has some great players - they're very strong in attack, and Jamie Parsons is excellent in defence. (Durham's other defenders may be great too - but I never got close enough to find out.) But where I think they really excelled (and York A didn't) is playing together as a team. They always had players down and ready to support, and everyone seemed to know more or less where everyone else was, or was going to be. From my position in defence I could clearly see that whenever someone from Durham made a break, there was someone with them to support - either ready to take a pass, or ready to pick it up from our defence if we succeeded in winning the puck.
In contrast, York isn't very good at supporting the player with the puck. And yes, I include myself in that statement. What this means is that when any player has the puck, when they run into trouble (the opposition, or possibly the need to breathe), that player has two choices: 1) off-load the puck blindly; or 2) stop, look around, try and spot a team mate, and try to pass to them. Option 1 works if you know your team inside out. Your team mates need to know you well enough to guess (accurately) where you are going to pass to, and you need to know your team mates play well enough to know where they're about to appear. York A isn't quite there yet, although this works sometimes, and more frequently between one or two particular players. Option 2 is a disaster against a stronger team because in the time it takes to look round, the opposition will relieve you of the puck, or you'll have lost all forward momentum. Plus, often your teammate is on the surface, so by the time they get down to the bottom, the opposition is already there. What I see us doing (and again, I'm as guilty as anyone) is option 1, but without the confidence that your teammate is going to collect the puck. Against a strong team like Durham, there's a greater than 50/50 chance that the opposition will collect the puck after such a blind pass.
The solution is to ensure that whenever someone has the puck, their team mates get themselves into a useful support position on the bottom of the pool where they can be seen. OK, the downside is it makes it easier for the opposition to mark you, but half the battle is keeping the puck (at least the opposition aren't scoring when you have the puck). Also, given that on the whole players don't have a greatest ability at flicking/long passes, we need to keep it much tighter together. There's no point being on the bottom of the pool to support your team mate if he or she can't actually pass to you because you're too far away - you might as well be sat on the side of the pool instead: a stronger team will probably beat you to the puck.
We also need to work on integration between forwards and defence. Playing a 3-3 formation, there's no midfield to bridge the gap. It certainly felt at times like the whole Durham team were sat between our defence and attack, so if we did manage to get it away from Durham's forwards, we struggled to get it up to our own forwards. One area in particular that should be really easy to improve on is when the puck goes out to the sidewall and it becomes one on one. There's only really 3 ways the puck is going to go - forwards (we win it), backwards (we loose it) or back towards the centre of the pool (could be anyone's). If we do manage to get the puck to go forwards, we need to ensure someone is there from our team to collect it and do something useful with it, because I'm quite sure the opposition will be there to collect it if we don't. Often in these encounters you can't actually swim the puck forwards, but you may be able to pass it forwards, perhaps even before running into the opposition, so it's important we recognise this situation occurring and get someone the other side of the opposition player. If we loose the encounter and it goes backwards, we need to ensure one of our defenders is there to collect it. And what if the puck comes back towards the centre of the pool? You've guessed it: we need someone ready to deal with that as well - either to collect it, or to take on the opposition player who's got hold of it.
OK, enough with the criticism. As I said earlier, York played much better in the second half. I'll let Ali comment on how the forwards played, but I thought both Tom and Sam played well. Sam did a sterling job as usual, and Tom's game has improved noticeable since Byker. If we were playing both home and away legs (which unfortunately we aren't), I'm quite confident we'd have been able to win the second match.
After all that, I hear you asking, what was the score? 11-6 to DUUHC. So, congratulations to Durham. But don't get too confident - we'll get you next time!
With 3 games played, I reckon the league results stand as follows:
I guess that puts Durham ahead on goal difference, although with only 3 games played, it's still wide open.
Oh dear.
I could give all sorts of excuses as to what happened. We didn't have any substitutes (even though we'd expected one). Neither Ali nor I were feeling particularly well. My snorkel started leaking resulting in me trying to breathe water (hence me jumping out part way through the second half - I needed to grab a spare). Seeing a puck against the wall and thinking Durham had scored - only to realise play was carrying on and the light green puck was a goalpost, not the dark green puck the match was being played with.
But, to be quite frank, we were outclassed.
Actually, it wasn't that bad - the second half was a lot closer. We hardly got a look in in the first half, but in the second half defending the shallow end was easier - especially as the deep end is 9 feet rather than the 6 were used to (oops, that sounds like another excuse...) and I think we were getting it together a bit more as a team. If the first half had been the same as the second, then I think it could have gone either way.
So, what went wrong?
Firstly, Durham has some great players - they're very strong in attack, and Jamie Parsons is excellent in defence. (Durham's other defenders may be great too - but I never got close enough to find out.) But where I think they really excelled (and York A didn't) is playing together as a team. They always had players down and ready to support, and everyone seemed to know more or less where everyone else was, or was going to be. From my position in defence I could clearly see that whenever someone from Durham made a break, there was someone with them to support - either ready to take a pass, or ready to pick it up from our defence if we succeeded in winning the puck.
In contrast, York isn't very good at supporting the player with the puck. And yes, I include myself in that statement. What this means is that when any player has the puck, when they run into trouble (the opposition, or possibly the need to breathe), that player has two choices: 1) off-load the puck blindly; or 2) stop, look around, try and spot a team mate, and try to pass to them. Option 1 works if you know your team inside out. Your team mates need to know you well enough to guess (accurately) where you are going to pass to, and you need to know your team mates play well enough to know where they're about to appear. York A isn't quite there yet, although this works sometimes, and more frequently between one or two particular players. Option 2 is a disaster against a stronger team because in the time it takes to look round, the opposition will relieve you of the puck, or you'll have lost all forward momentum. Plus, often your teammate is on the surface, so by the time they get down to the bottom, the opposition is already there. What I see us doing (and again, I'm as guilty as anyone) is option 1, but without the confidence that your teammate is going to collect the puck. Against a strong team like Durham, there's a greater than 50/50 chance that the opposition will collect the puck after such a blind pass.
The solution is to ensure that whenever someone has the puck, their team mates get themselves into a useful support position on the bottom of the pool where they can be seen. OK, the downside is it makes it easier for the opposition to mark you, but half the battle is keeping the puck (at least the opposition aren't scoring when you have the puck). Also, given that on the whole players don't have a greatest ability at flicking/long passes, we need to keep it much tighter together. There's no point being on the bottom of the pool to support your team mate if he or she can't actually pass to you because you're too far away - you might as well be sat on the side of the pool instead: a stronger team will probably beat you to the puck.
We also need to work on integration between forwards and defence. Playing a 3-3 formation, there's no midfield to bridge the gap. It certainly felt at times like the whole Durham team were sat between our defence and attack, so if we did manage to get it away from Durham's forwards, we struggled to get it up to our own forwards. One area in particular that should be really easy to improve on is when the puck goes out to the sidewall and it becomes one on one. There's only really 3 ways the puck is going to go - forwards (we win it), backwards (we loose it) or back towards the centre of the pool (could be anyone's). If we do manage to get the puck to go forwards, we need to ensure someone is there from our team to collect it and do something useful with it, because I'm quite sure the opposition will be there to collect it if we don't. Often in these encounters you can't actually swim the puck forwards, but you may be able to pass it forwards, perhaps even before running into the opposition, so it's important we recognise this situation occurring and get someone the other side of the opposition player. If we loose the encounter and it goes backwards, we need to ensure one of our defenders is there to collect it. And what if the puck comes back towards the centre of the pool? You've guessed it: we need someone ready to deal with that as well - either to collect it, or to take on the opposition player who's got hold of it.
OK, enough with the criticism. As I said earlier, York played much better in the second half. I'll let Ali comment on how the forwards played, but I thought both Tom and Sam played well. Sam did a sterling job as usual, and Tom's game has improved noticeable since Byker. If we were playing both home and away legs (which unfortunately we aren't), I'm quite confident we'd have been able to win the second match.
After all that, I hear you asking, what was the score? 11-6 to DUUHC. So, congratulations to Durham. But don't get too confident - we'll get you next time!
With 3 games played, I reckon the league results stand as follows:
| Team | Played | Won | Drawn | Lost | Goal Difference |
| Byker | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | -6 |
| DUUHC | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | +5 |
| Jesmond | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | +4 |
| York Uni A | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | +1 |
| York Uni B | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | -4 |
I guess that puts Durham ahead on goal difference, although with only 3 games played, it's still wide open.
Edited to fix DUUHC entry - they haven't lost a match as the table originally showed!
