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Thursday 15th July Den Bosch , Holland, Match report by Stevo.
It's Thursday so it must be 's Hertogenbosch, medieval capital of North Brabant. I visit its splendid gothic cathedral, light a candle, and offer up a prayer to the Gods to smile benevolently upon the lads in the long, hard season that lies ahead, and bestow them with good fortune. Ruud would approve. FC Den Bosch is, with all respect, a small club who did well to win promotion back to the top flight after a six-year absence. Staying up will be a major achievement but on paper they are the strongest side of the three we'll meet in the Netherlands. They've spent what they can ("Now, is that the Czech or the Pole?" asks the woman behind me as their new no. 9 strolls out) but the empty grass banking behind each goal in the ECCO stadium speaks for itself. Outside I meet new BBSer Filip, resplendent in his 'Toon Army, Belgium' shirt. He's travelling up from Brussels for all 3 games. I meet Hans and his girlfriend from Rotterdam "the new shirts are just not available here" he moans , 'its terrible. I sit by two parents who've brought their son down from the North of the Netherlands to see the lads "He is mad on this Newcastle United' he says shaking his head. I've lived here for 4 years and never realized we were so popular. Shearer, Speed, and Given sit on one bench exchanging jokes, Marcelino joins them. I'm not sure how good the Spaniards English is but credit to the skipper Big Al did try to involve him in the conversation. On another bench Dabizas and Ketsbaia chat with a plump, spectacled Mediterranean fellow. Has Georgiadas put on a lot of weight in the summer? They remain seated as the other players come out for the warm up. We took 28 players apparently, but no sight of a certain German. The team : Perez, Barton, Serrant, Kerr, Goma, Dumas, McClenn, Charvet, Coppinger, Griffin, Glass On the bench Beharall, Caldwell, Hughes, Anderson, Lemmen We lined up as follows: Perez Dumas Charvet ........................................Goma Griffin .................................................................Serrant Barton ..........McClenn Kerr............................................ Glass Coppinger
The game started in a predictably sluggish tempo. We had plenty of possession and were on top for much of the half but too many moves broke down in offside. Ruud began to get a touch irritated and yelled at the very tanned Charvet to go forward more often. Charvet promptly got the ball, burst through into their penalty area, and from the ensuing chaos McClenn got a tap-in. Nice one Ruud. T he Den Bosch supporters around me were not happy though, "definitely off-side". We hit the post before Harry Van Der Laan, a goal scoring phenomenon in the Dutch lower division, got the ball on the edge of the area and used the space he found himse lf in to drive it past Perez. Our gallic trio look at each other accusingly in a way that one hopes doesn't become too familiar. 1-1 at half time. No changes in our line up for the second half. Three minutes in and the silky skills of Bartinho ca use panic in the Den Bosch penalty area. Warren is brought down and Coppinger converts the penalty. Seven minutes into the half and Anderson is brought on to replace the anonymous Kerr, it takes him two minutes to fall over. Caldwell came on for P erez but the game was now largely played in our half. There were too few options up front with Coppinger isolated. That said we gave few chances away and deserved our 2-1 win. The players: Perez - Astonished the Toon fans by claiming a cross. Made two smart saves when called upon which wasn't often. Dumas - He looks the part does Franck, rugged and determined. He read the game well, as a good libero should, snuffing out passes and making a few goal saving tackles. Gratifyingly he showed a deceptive turn of pace when their striker got behind him . He looked very comfortable on the ball. Goma - Hugely impressive. Marshalled his man superbly, won key tackle after key tackle, and the grudging respect of the Den Bosch faithful around me. He had the knack of somehow managing to get to the ba ll first, even when his opposite number looked to have him beat. He played with a degree of commitment far above the level of a pre-season friendly getting hurt a couple of times for his efforts. Man of the Match. Charvet - Won most things he wen t for in the air, "look at that pushing, that's typically English" complained the Den Bosch supporter next to me, 'but he's French' I replied, "Well he plays for them doesn't he". Was more inclined to get forward than his fellow Frenchmen but gave th e ball away too often. Griffin - Spent much of the first half yelling at Kerr ahead of him as to who they should be marking when Den Bosch attacked down the left. This air confusion gave Den Bosch some of their best chances. His opposite number played well and Andy didn't always have him under control. Serrant - Should some lovely touches early on, wonderful ball control, but alas the moment that sticks in the mind is a clearance that ended high in the air above our penalty area. Distribution left a bit to be desired. Like Griffin he sometimes seemed unsure how far forward he should be playing. Barton - Displayed an astonishing level of fitness running between both areas for the full 90 minutes. Always choosing the efficient r ather than the spectacular Warren worked very hard and earned us the penalty. A captains performance. McClenn - Tigerish in midfield, tackled hard and always tried to make himself available. Committed, passed well and wasn't afraid to shoot. Looked one of the senior pros, and I think we could see more of him next season. Kerr - Looked somewhat out of his depth and struggled to get into the game.
Glass - Welcome return for our Scottish winger. He started
brightly but the lack of match practice showed as he faded
quickly and I was surprised he wasn't subbed, especially
after being clattered a couple of times. Coppinger - Ploughed a lonely furrow upfront where he ran his socks off but all-too-often Jaimie found himself heavily outnumbered without support. Showed some trickery when facing goal with the ball at his feet, and took his penalty well. If we are to play this way next season Shearer will need to be very fit and he'll need more help than Jaimie got. The subs Andersson (for Kerr) - Alas Andreas. A sense of pity came over me rather than contempt. He tried , he really tried, but his attempts at beating his man invariably gave the ball away. Once he actually managed to win it back only to fluff the cross. Still shows a disturbing inability to remain upright. Lemmen (for Perez) - Too little to do to make a real judgement. Came for a corner, overreached himself, and came perilously close to clawing the ball back into his own goal. I'm off to Eindhoven for the next two games, reports to follow soon From Stevo |
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We
played an intriguing formation with Dumas as sweeper behind Charvet
and Goma in the centre of defence. Serrant and Griffin played
wide between them and midfield, where Barton (captain) and
McClenn played in the centre. Kerr and Glass played wide leaving
Coppinger as our only out and out striker (1-2-2-2-1 is
probably the best description).
