04/05 Season Review: First Team

Sebastopol 1st team season review

 

After lifting the league championship in the Gwent Central division 1 the previous season, and with it gaining promotion, Sebastopol started the season full of confidence and in high spirits in anticipation of their Gwent County debut.
Retaining the same squad as the previous season, Sebastopol knew that with so many of the players gaining their first foray into County football that this year would be as much a learning experience as anything else. Signs, however, were good with the average age of the squad being in the early 20’s.

As is often the case early in the season, Sebast went in to their first game missing a few players due to work and holiday commitments, but still fielded a strong team for the visit of AC Pontymister. Despite a competent performance on the opening day, Sebastopol eventually lost out by the odd goal in seven. Having been the better side for the best part of an hour, the debutantes would be loathe to accept defeat due to individual errors and carelessness. A combination of poor fitness, wastefulness in front of goal and sloppy defending would set a precedent that would blight the team for much of the coming season. Keen to banish the memories of the Pontymister match, Sebast embarked on the long journey to Thornwell Burnt Barn for their first away match of the season. Again, Sebast would be the better team for the majority of the game and led the match at the hour mark, but a horrific half-hour which saw Sebast totally collapse and gift Thornwell three goals to lose the match 5-2. Despite having only played two matches thus far, certain things became obvious. The midfield and attack were working well and creating chances, with the side having scored five goals in two games; but as a defensive unit, the midfield and defence were anything but steady. Already conceding nine goals in two games, the majority of which were down to players not doing their job or individual mistakes, the Sebastopol management team were keen to kick this habit as soon as possible.
After two defeats, Sebastopol felt that a match with fierce rivals PILCS at the ruffets would be an ideal time to kick-start the season and gain the first points of the season. In what would be their first clean sheet of the season (something that would prove few and far between), Sebastopol dominated the match from start to finish, and despite having a few players missing claimed their first win of the season. A headed goal just four minutes in from Chris Phelps set the home site off on the front foot, and the team continued to dominate the game – missing plenty of chances but never looking likely to lose the game. Rob Surtees would add a second goal midway through the second half as the team and manager John Maddox were thoroughly pleased with a job well done.

On the back of this win, Sebast travelled to FC Dugout with renewed confidence and eagre to continue their winning ways. This was evident in the play as Sebast swept aside dugout in the opening 40 minutes with flowing football and a level of passing and movemet that they would scarcely replicate throughout the season. A blistering first half saw the visitors rampage into a 2-0 lead (when in truth their dominance deserved more), but as often proved the case a silly mistake cost us a late late goal to leave the scoreline at a precarious 2-1 at the break. This was to un-nerve the team and totally dismantle their rhythm . The team simply fell apart – perhaps due to inexperience and also maybe due to disbelief that this game wasn’t won. Two sloppy goals followed for Dugout who somehow led 3-2, only for substitute Darren Wheatstone scored a last gasp equaliser (and a stunner at that!) to rescue a point for Sebastopol. After the game in the changing rooms manager John Maddox let rip and left all the players in no doubt that they must improve their work rate and concentration levels if they wished to compete at this level and improve performances and results.
These harsh words worked wonders (NOT!). Next up was the visit of high-flying Abergavenny Thursdays who dominated the game from start to finish and thrashed Sebast by five goals to nil. If it were not for stand-in goalkeeper Ian Doughty (replacing Steve O’Dwyer who was unavailable) the score may have been a lot heavier. No complaints about this result, Sebast were beaten by a far better team on the day.
A cruel run of fixtures would follow, as Sebast played the top four teams in successive weeks. Next up Sebast visited top of the league Monmouth Town and were again lucky to escape with only a five goal thrashing. In the sweltering thirty-degree heat, Sebastopol had no answer to the pass and move game on show from Monmouth Town, who would eventually go on to be promoted from this division. Unperturbed by this hammering, John Maddox could only tell the players to keep working hard and cut out the basic mistakes that were costing them to concede too many sloppy goals. A home game with second place and undefeated Rogerstone was now in store. Despite the huge difference in experience and form, the firsts put in a much improved performance, clearly hurt by the two thrashings received in recent weeks and were unlucky not to take anything from this game. The match ended in a credible 3-1 defeat, decided by a highly debatable Rogerstone penalty and an outstanding finish by their winger in the last 5 minutes of the game to put a harsh stain on the scoreline.
It was after these series of games Sebastopol enjoyed their best run of the season. In the next eleven games Sebastopol would go on to record four wins and five draws in the league games with only two defeats. All of these games would feature much improved team performances, which raised spirits and with it team morale. This had a snowballing effect, as Sebastopol acclimatised themselves to Gwent County football and began to climb away from the foot of the table. From the outset a reallistic target for any promoted team would simply to be to avoid relegation. More so for us given the widespred inexperience at this level and general youthfulness of the squad (Gwilym and Ronnie excluded of course!). The most disappointing aspect of this run of results was that many of those drawn games should have been wins. Intriguingly, Sebast had suddenly gone from being disappointed with defeat to disappointment with a draw – a significant change in mindset and sign of new ambition within the team. One of the high lights of this run (and the season as a whole) was the fabulous 7-3 victory over Trethomas Bluebirds. At the time of the game, Trethomas were flying in the league and held a massive advantage in terms of league placement and points gained, but Sebast would defy this and thrash the visitors in spectacular style. In what was probably the best performance of the season, Lee Jones and Gwilym Davies forged an outstanding midfield partnership to dominate the middle of the park, while James Jackson and Rob Surtees showed how good a pairing they were up front together. Jackson and Surtees had proven way too hot to handle in the Gwent Central leagues; but any doubts about whether they could continue this run with the step up into County football were banished as the duo continued to score for fun. Also during this run we played 1st division outfit Mardy in the Amateur cup. It may sound strange, but despite losing 5-0, our performance was not bad, in fact we most probably had better chances but did not take them.
Most certainly this was not a 5-0 defeat in the same vein as Abergavenny or Monmouth – the game was much closer and Sebast were justifiably sickened by the scoreline. Meanwhile the team would progress in another cup competition, the County Motors Cup. The team would beat fellow third-division side Ebbw Vale Town 4-1, the high light of this game being a quality hat-trick from Mike Gallivan who had threatened this type of performance for a number of weeks, but chose this match to produce in spectacular style.

The reward for progressing in the cup? A draw again another first division team!
However, despite fearing a team two division above us (a local paper had described this match as a formality given the difference in league standings!), Sebastopol would relish the opportunity to show how far the team had come in the past months. While a home tie would have been nice, Sebastopol were drawn away to Abercarn, but provided the shock of the round to win 2-1. An outstanding performance from 1 to 11, Sebast created chance after chance and thoroughly deserved to go through after dominating a team they really had no right to beat. The result and performance simply reinforced Manager John Maddox’ belief that when the team performed to capacity and everything clicked into place, the team could give any side a run for their money. But as it proved over the season we could not find that consistency and the side were left with too many what-ifs and if-only’s!
The cup “dream” ended in disappointing fashion as Abergavenny knocked us out in the next round by a score-line 5-3. The most disappointing aspect of this defeat was how many regular first team players missed this game due to work commitments, illness or injury. In fact with eight league games to go, this would become a regular occurrence until the end of the season and hamper team selection enormously In our next four league games we would record two wins and two defeats. The best of these wins was a season record win of 8-1 against Ebbw Vale Town. James Jackson stole the show, scoring four times while Rob Surtees netted twice to show what a hand full they could be on their day. If only we could deploy the same settled side on a regular basis, results like this could become much more achievable. In fact, Jackson and Surtees would play only a handful of full games together in a season blighted by injury and absentees. With mid-table security achieved, the last 4 games of the season ended in defeat. With the league campaign petering out two of the defeats were deservedly so, but two were very unlucky. At Trethomas a solid and impressive performance was ruined when the referee gave a penalty against Sebastopol and even admitted himself that he did not know who supposedly brought their player down in the box. This penalty was converted and cost the visitors the match, as Trethomas held out for a 1-0 win when everyone agreed that a draw was the fair result.

The season ended at third-placed Caldicot. Sebastopol were leading 1-0 for a long period of this game when another dubious penalty was awarded against Sebastopol. This made the score-line it 1-1 and in the last 5 minutes of the game Caldicot managed to grab an underserved winner to end the season on something of a low for Sebastopol.

It is, however, clear over the course of the season that the team has progressed a great deal. The players, managers and everyone associated with the club have learnt a great deal in the past year and know the team has the capacity to improve and progress much further given the right attitude and commitment.

If the players apply themselves correctly and prepare for matches in the required manner, there is no doubt that Sebast can capitalise on what has been gained in their debut season in the Gwent County divisions and aim for greater things next year. I do personally believe that with more effort in training and with the experience gained from this season we will make big improvements next year.

I would like to thank all my playing squad for their effort and commitment over the season and hope to see you all back next term.

Yours Sincerely

J.L.Maddox
(1st Team Manager)

Season Stats

To see more statistics and information from the 2004/2005 season, follow this link