Simon’s thoughts

Bridgwater and Albion’s match against Bideford on Saturday was very much a game of two halves as head coach Simon Morrell reflected the day afterwards.
“I thought that we were exceptional for 41 minutes of the match and it was a reflection of what we have introduced and the way we are trying to play this year. We just did all the right things, our kick chase was brilliant, our defence was exceptional and our shape in attack was superb.
“I think that half time came 10 minutes or so too early for us because we doing everything right, and Bideford were hanging on by their finger-nails at that point and they were just pleased when the whistle went.”
However the second half was frustrating as the head coach explained.
“Most of the second half was a reflection of what we have been like at times this season, the messages get lost when we are fatigued and we resort back to the clueless Bridgy of old.
“Added to that we didn’t handle the ref very well at all. He was penalizing us for being positive and the more phases we played the more we were inclined to give away a penalty for holding on. We should have adapted to, rather than keep on playing and giving away a penalty.
“We gave them the opportunity they needed to strangle us a little bit and we were naïve in this way. I have watched the video and even though we won there is still a lot of work that needs to be done so we will certainly not be getting carried away at all.”
Morrell went on: “Before the start of Saturday’s game Bideford were fourth in the table and we know that we are loads better than they were.”
“What our side really needs is to put someone to the sword and put 50 points on the board against a team, because at the moment we haven’t got that belief when things go wrong.
He added: “We could have put 50 on Bideford yesterday comfortably and we would have been up and running in fifth gear now, instead of being not quite there yet.”
Bridgwater travel to South Devon next Saturday to face Kingsbridge, who were well beaten at Matson at the weekend and are immediately below them in the table.

Category: 1st XV News, Previews / Reports -XV