Season 2011-12 Fan Articles

Gardening Leave

By Andy   McNabb  ::  16/10/2011   4 Comments (»Last) In the season which has just ended, I coached my son?s football team which plays in a Melbourne league. At the age of 22, he still has to ask his dad for a favour every now and then and last season was one of those occasions.

Last night at the awards evening, as I looked out at the assembled side, I was reminded of the interesting and at times humbling experience the previous 6 months has been. A few things have really stood out and of course I automatically relate it all back to Goodison and events happening there, where, like many others, I have a limitless supply of opinion as to what should happen on and off the pitch.

As the scores then rolled through in the early hours, Chelsea 3 ? 1 Everton and Man City 4 ? 1 Aston Villa seemed good examples of the way it really is these days. It added fuel to what I felt were a number of inescapable comparisons between a little team in Melbourne and our once great Club.

You can?t make a silk purse out of a sow?s ear ? I?ve coached a great bunch of lads who give their all but, without any transfers, apart from a few players who may turn up midseason, you make do with whoever turns up at the original training session.

I like to think that, after 49 years of watching and playing, I have a sound grasp of the game and want to see it played well. Throughout the season my mantra was, ?The man without the ball makes the play?? taken from the wonderful Danny Blanchflower's Tottenham team of the ?60s. But how much that was utilised was so often more down to individual skill than my coaching. Maybe you have to make do with an Osman when you would really like a Modric?

There are some things for which you simply cannot legislate ? individual goalkeeping errors, missed penalties, and poor decision making under pressure despite numerous reminders. I would often catch myself standing on the sidelines frowning, with my arms folded and then go home to watch Moysey assume exactly the same position. Do we take this into account when results go against us or is it lost in the torrent of emotion?

Then, all of a sudden, my team look like world beaters ? where did that come from? We are a small club and have to compete against others who actually pay secretaries, coaches etc. Before a ball is kicked, we are at a disadvantage and yet, one Saturday afternoon in a torrential downpour, when the fog was so bad you could hardly see across the pitch, let alone end to end, we battered the eventual champions, until a crazy deflection from a corner, incorrectly awarded 45 seconds before the end, resulted in a 2-1 loss. To give them their due, the opposition looked suitably embarrassed at the final whistle.

The Everton team is also made of players who, for some reason, will sometimes play better individually and thus complement each other as a unit and at other times look like they have only met about 10 minutes before kick off.

Officials don?t always come up to scratch; Mr Atkinson?s rush of blood to the head in the derby has been overturned but it is of little help to us now. I have no desire to take on the role of referee, as it is a thankless task but all the preparation in the world can quickly unravel if the match official gets things wrong.

Seasons can turn on such decisions and some of the referees in our amateur Melbourne league are frustrating at best. (One post-match ?discussion? with the ref last season revolved around his worrying conclusion that ?soccer? was a non-contact sport!) I don?t believe all this rubbish about decisions evening themselves out over the season. Rodwell?s red card and its consequences could signal a downward spiral in a team already up against the odds which lasts for weeks.

Managers make mistakes: one week, there was no-one to play in goal so I volunteered and, without telling the players of the mysterious shooting pain in my right shoulder, I took 3 Ibuprofen, used lots of Deep Heat, and donned the gloves. I had played pretty well and we were 4-3 up with 5 minutes to go when I somehow managed to drop the ball in the back of the net from a quickly taken free kick. In my desolation at the team debrief, the other players assured me we are all fallible ? so is Mr Moyes, I suppose.

I had all sorts of dreams at the start of the season but we finished mid-table and next year I?ll simply watch as an occasional spectator, spending more time restoring the acre of land which constitutes our garden and which has been neglected while I?ve dashed off to Melbourne every Saturday.

Maybe the similarities between myself and our manager will continue in this respect as well. I?ve thoroughly enjoyed the ride but I recognise my personal limitations and the constraints put on me by outside forces. Maybe that makes me either a keener gardener or a quicker learner than our Davey?

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