Watford Reserves 2:1 QPR Reserves
So, seeing as it was my last day of holiday before I returned to work, I decided to treat myself with a trip to Boreham Wood to catch QPR Reserves in action against Watford’s Reserves.
I have been meaning to get to either a reserve or youth team game, but just haven’t found the time to do it. This however was the perfect opportunity and I was looking forward to seeing Matt Pickens in action so I could get a closer look at him.
He however was injured in training today and Reece Crowther was also carrying a knock, so new goalkeeping coach David Rouse had to don the gloves and take goal.
Boreham Wood’s stadium looked shut when I arrived, but I happened to bump into Bobby Ross as I made my way in. What a lovely guy Bobby is. I couldn’t believe that he recognised me because I hadn’t seen or spoken to him for around 11 years.
He used to supervise the football at Sulgrave Youth Club, where I played five-a-side for many a year and I was always very fond of him back then. I’m glad to see he is just as sincere and chatty as he has always been and for him to remember my face, from childhood to adulthood, just shows the type of character he is. He epitomises everything that is good about QPR.
Having seen me, I asked him how I could actually get inside, because all the entrances I’d come across were shut. He popped off for a moment and told me to wait whilst he got permission for me to enter with him for free. What a pleasant gesture. 
Bobby took the time to chat to me for a while before the match got underway and told me how terrifically exciting it was to be at the club. He said the whole place was buzzing and that Flavio Briatore and his team were real winners. There are a lot of positive changes happening at the club and Flavio himself is on-site an awful lot. Bobby feels they really mean business and that was good to hear.
I was hoping to see a few first-team faces at the game, but the only high profile player was Angelo Balanta. There were plenty of trialists in our team, but it was still an opportunity to see how football is played at this level.
We got off to a great start when Chris Arthur opened the scoring from a free-kick. Mart Poom was in the Watford goal, and he couldn’t keep his low curling drive out. It was a good start for the makeshift R’s.
The football though was unusual to watch to say the least. It’s fair to say that the quality and style is a far cry from the professional game and there are many reasons why. It’s hard to describe them in an article like this but I’ll try to summarise.
The number of touches the players take is too high. Both sets of players were often taking five, six or seven touches of the ball, whereas at top-top level, you’re looking at three touches at the most and maybe one or two more for the players who dribble with the ball. This drastically alters the style of the play and it doesn’t flow as well.
There is also a heck of a lot of percentage based play going on. The players often hit the ball into ’safe areas’ first, rather than relying on quality. That’s a big problem at lower level in our country and we should be encouraging our players to keep playing good technical and tactical football, and not worry too much about mistakes. It’s practice at the end of the day for the real thing. The players seemed scared to do anything more than enough, which is like passing the buck, even if that’s not the intention.
The other factor, and a big one at that, is decision making. The players generally are not making as good decisions on the ball, sometimes playing too many extravagant looking passes that aren’t the right ones, or are counter productive to the flow.
For example, there were several attacks where players could have slotted others in with simple short passes, but instead opted for a longer switch pass. By the time the ball reached its man, he had to get it under control (remember, they’re taking more touches) and it slows the attack down. Sometimes they lose the ball too, due to the proximity of a defender (even if the pass did reach them) and that’s why it’s not the right ball to play in that situation.
The pace of the game was quite frantic. The football was end to end at a high tempo and nobody from either team put their foot on the ball to slow the game down or control the tempo. The defenders generally were more than content to hack it up field rather than build up the play from the back, although having said that, there was some good passing moves from either side.
Physically it’s tough out there. There are lots of aerial duals and tackles flying in and the referee appeared a lot more lenient than at professional level. In fact, some of the refereeing was diabolical. Whoever the officials were, they allowed a Watford player to take a corner to HIMSELF. Yes, HIMSELF. He simply kicked it forward and then dribbled three or four yards before crossing the ball into the box, much to the complete bemusement of myself and some other fans who were watching.
The ball also went out twice and the referee just decided to wave play on because it happened to come back into play and land at the feet of a player who’s teams throw it was anyway. I really haven’t seen anything like that before and despite one or two protests from the players and staff, they just got on with it anyway.
Quality wise, well, Watford created more chances but their finishing wasn’t up to standard whereas we seemed to have slightly more of the ball without creating a great deal. Angelo Balanta had a fine effort brilliantly saved by Mart Poom, but apart from that, they were half chances at best.
Balanta looked pretty good out there. Technical skills will shine in matches like these and you could see his technique was superior than most around him. Danny Maguire, who came on as a substitute, was the only other player who looked pretty good to me, technically at least (as he’d just returned from an ankle injury that had kept him out for 5 months).
I wasn’t impressed though by the whole team’s work rate when going backwards and that’s another major difference between reserve team and senior football. The players often walked back, in fours and fives, which stretched the game and led to several unnecessary counter attacks.
The only other thing that struck me as strange, but maybe it’s normal, but you could hear our coaching staff and Steve Brown shouting our orders and instructions to the players. The majority of it was good stuff, but it was really unusual to see how many times the players stopped to turn around and listen to what was being said.
That sort of sounds like it’s a good thing, because the players are listening, but that also breaks you out of your zone when you’re trying to play your game. It made me think of Sir Alex Ferguson and Manchester United. He tells his players what he wants a few hours before kick off and then leaves them to it. You rarely see him come down to bark orders or instructions unless it’s necessary. Still, a lot of these are kids, so maybe it is the right way but I found it interesting all the same.
Watford had two players who stood out - Lionel Ainsworth who was very quick and lively and Luke Young, the brother of Ashley who looks and plays similarly to him. They were pretty small though, so they’re going to need to be exceptionally good to make it at the top level.
Photos from the game
