Match Report Ulvie v Dev

Match Report - Ulverstone 2 - 5 Devonport

It is hard to give an accurate match report as I am basically useless at remembering details, especially goal scorers from the other team. I’ll give it a shot though but apologies to the Dev players if I don’t remember.

To be honest, we started really well. In the first 10-15mins I thought we were going to smash them. That all changed with a moment of muppetry from a Daniel McGinn corner. An ordinarily taken corner somehow found its way to the back of the net. Josh Laing was covering the front post and was about to clear when keeper Will Cox-Haines called for the ball and made contact with Laing. The ball went in off Cox-Haines and the heads dropped. We lacked a bit of leadership on the pitch at this point and the game started to become a battle. I can’t remember the order of their goals but one was a well built up goal down the left after Kenny flicked the ball on for McGinn who knocked a quality ball over for I think it was Jordan Douce to head home. I think their other goal for the half came from a corner and was well headed home.

3-0 at half time and probably the most disappointing thing was that every player walked off with their head down. It is important for the leaders in the group to step up and try and get the younger ones up and enthusiastic again in these situations but this didn’t really happen.

In the second half it was a fairly even battle but Devonport were doing what was required in that position to see out the game fairly comfortably. We pegged a goal back with about 20 to go after Joel Stone dribbled the ball across the box and laid off to Kyle Baldock, who finished with aplomb. Our hopes were lifted for a little while but when Brad Chilcott hammered home from the edge of the box, the game was all but over. Each team scored a goal each after that. Ulverstone’s was an own goal after Keep was pressured by Michael Grey and he punched the ball into his own net. Kenny scored the final goal for Devonport, outjumping Adrian Foote at the back post to head home.

Devonport weren’t doing anything overly special with the ball however, when they were attacking, they were all on the same page and they have a good understanding where the ball is going. They have this understanding in defence also but there were holes that we were unable to take advantage of. I feared for Connor Lizotte’s safety at times. Man that kid can jump!

After the first 15 our attack struggled to have an impact in the game. There has been something missing in attack in the last 3 games and that will need to be addressed this week. We were also poor in the air defensively and that will also need to be addressed. With a young group, inevitably, you get young leaders and they have bad days. I’m not saying the leaders played particularly poorly but we didn’t have anyone stand up and lift the group with positivity and encouragement. The players I’m referring to are not just our co-captains, Ben Foote and Joel Stone, but also Adrian Foote, and Kyle and Dallas Baldock. They showed in preseason that they can be positive when things get tough but that was missing on Saturday.