GAME Week 6 v Seaton Carew Tigers (Cup)

Two games back to back feels like a bit of novelty this season but it's down to the hard work of David, the Rutherford AFC groundsman, that we're able to play games this season.

Seaton Carew are a team we know pretty well, we've played them in league at 7v7 and a few times in preseason Friendlies, I know Darren, their coach, pretty well as we attend a lot of the same CPDs courses. They're a good team despite being in the bottom division, so today was always going to be tough. We knew how Seaton would set up, they get the ball wide early and cross balls into the box, they're pretty effective and they found success in preseason using this tactic, we spoke about it in training of the last two weeks, practiced how to force wingers inside or backwards and how important it is to stop crosses. We've practice heading and attacking the ball, winning the first and second contact, so we had enough knowledge and practice to cope, in theory. Unfortunately, sometimes theory doesn't quite work and we didn't defend well enough today and paid the price with two goals from crosses in the first half.

In addition to working on the above, we work a lot on tempo, pace of attacks, how, when and where we move the ball but this was also a struggle today and not up to the standard we've set. We were second in all areas, not quite strong enough in the tackle and the amount of times an opposition player ran beyond a Rutherford player without being tracked was worrying to see. There's a reason we hammer home the message "Out run, out fight, out play", it's absolutely essential if the players want to succeed.

I must shoulder a large amount of responsibility however, I pick the team, set them up, provide direction and devise the coaching, so when it doesn't work, it's not fair, appropriate or valid to look elsewhere to find answers, I must look at myself first. I'll take this defeat on the chin and work out ways to improve my messages and delivery. Anyway, every game, training session and season is a learning experience and we move forward, hopefully stronger as a result.

There were some positives today, Taylor is improving with every game, he covered well and won lots of challenges. Penny seemed more confident than previous games and almost scored with a powerful shot from long range. In the first half we set ourselves a challenge to have between 4 and 7 shots at goal, we achieved 6 and Jack was superb in goal. All good, positive things.

On the topic of Jack, I'd like not only to call his performance out but also the hard work and effort he puts into his game. I'm in a group chat with his new goalkeeping coach and I've seen the videos of the sessions he's doing and I think we can all agree that if today's performance is anything to go by they're starting to pay dividends. Some of the saves were fantastic, the one at the end, high and just right of centre which was tipped over the bar was a great save. Without Jack's performance today, the scoreline would've been much higher. Well done, you should be proud of yourself.

It's a shame to be out of the cup, we were going well and hadn't got this far before. I felt it was a real chance to progress but like I say, we live and learn.

A chance for a positive performance next week.

Scott