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´óÏó´«Ã½ BLOGS - Chris Jardine

Archives for February 2011

All in the timing: the difference a late goal makes

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Chris Jardine | 12:35 UK time, Thursday, 24 February 2011

Inconsistency is looking like it could cost us dearly this season.

After working so hard to get ourselves back into a play-off position we then surrendered it with a whimper in our worst performance of the season at Hampden on Tuesday. The only way to look on positively is to say that surely that is as bad as it can get.

We have crept back in to our old habit of giving very sloppy goals away and we gifted Queen's Park three goals.

Please don't think that I'm taking anything away from Queen's Park and their performance as I think I've made my feelings known about them as a footballing side over the last couple of years. However, the bottom line is that they didn't score a goal from anything they created on their own.

We had kept three clean sheets in four games before we travelled to Berwick on 12 February. Although we won that match we've conceded eight goals in the three matches, including that one.

When you look back at those goals, I would say at least five were complete gifts and the other three were certainly avoidable.

I suppose if you analyse everything then there is always a mistake somewhere along the line. But the goals we give away are different and they are goals that we never seem to get from other teams in the league.

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New faces at Clyde are a boost for Division Three

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Chris Jardine | 17:58 UK time, Wednesday, 16 February 2011

I really hope that the Annan players and supporters take away positive's from .

Yes, our bad results in midweek fixtures continue but there was certainly a lot more to be upbeat about than there was from our last defeat under the home floodlights to Queen's Park.

After the match a lot was made about our sluggish start to the second half, and rightly so because it wasn't good enough. We seem to have a problem going up the slope if we're not already in front; answers on a postcard please because I'm at a loss to explain it.

It goes without saying that we need to sort that out, but had we taken our chances (and there were two or three very good ones in that first half) that wouldn't have been too much of a worry in my opinion.

Chances don't come any better than the ones we had on Tuesday and in my opinion we are much better when we are defending a half-time lead as opposed to coming out and opening up; particularly when we're going up the slope.

This is obviously a part of our game we have to work on and I'm sure we'll talk about it at training on Thursday night. However, I can't help but think back to the missed chances and if they are taken this is an entirely different column this week. But that's football I suppose and the fine line between winning and not.

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Harsh words pay dividends at Annan

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Chris Jardine | 14:33 UK time, Thursday, 10 February 2011

The last two games have shown both the good and bad sides of Annan Athletic in recent times.

was just about as bad as it's been this season but our just four days later has everyone feeling good again.

I'll be honest and say that it was a hard few days after our defeat last Tuesday and the training session that followed on Thursday evening was anything but pleasant. I think we were very lucky that the manager wasn't in attendance. There were a couple of fall-outs on the training pitch and following that we all sat down and had words together as a team.

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More midweek misery for Annan Athletic

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Chris Jardine | 16:01 UK time, Wednesday, 2 February 2011

Annan Athletic allowed their midweek hoodoo to continue with a terribly on Tuesday.

In our two-and-half-years in the Third Division we have yet to win a midweek fixture.

It's an awful statistic and one that, should it not be sorted in the very near future, will cost us a promotion place.

The players, management and coaching staff were in the changing room for a long time after the match was over and although there were no raised voices there is genuine concern for our continued poor midweek performances.

A few of the players had their say on what they think went wrong and I've heard a few supporters' opinions on things as well.

The formation that we played last night cropped up a few times but I'm not having that for an excuse. We've kept two consecutive clean sheets playing just about the same line-up and although the performance was poor in the first half we had kept another one until things were changed at half-time.

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