We need to be pitch perfect in Cardiff, says County boss
MICHAEL Flynn has told his players there can be no excuses when they head to Cardiff City Stadium on Tuesday night to face Bradford in the first of two ‘home’ games on a pristine surface.
Ever since they lost top spot in League 2 at the start of the year there have been more words written about the poor state of their Rodney Parade pitch than anything else. Two wins in their last 15 games only tells part of the story.
But after making the long trip to Colchester today they will be itching to prove they can still make up lost ground and turn what looked so promising in the first half of the campaign into a fairy tale ending.
“I’m honest enough to admit the points total over the last few months hasn’t been good enough, but it’s not all doom and gloom,” said Flynn.
“We can still have a fantastic season and I’ve still got faith in this group of players. There are a lot of factors that have contributed to our demise and when that happens a little bit of confidence goes.
“We raised the level of expectations with our great start to the season, but if you had offered me the points total and the position we are in now before we’d kicked a ball I think everyone at the club would have taken it.”
More than anything the players need to taste victory again and Colchester would be the perfect place to start before taking on Bradford on a grass, rather than mud and sand, pitch on Tuesday night. Not that it will be easy, Flynn certainly knows that.
The two teams have an almost identical record in recent months with only two wins each in their last 15 games. Colchester are down in 20th place, but will go into the game against County buoyed by their 2-1 home win over Carlisle
in midweek when hot-shot Callum Harriott struck twice to take his goal tally for the season to eight in a 2-1 win.
“Colchester just got their first home win since the beginning of December, so they will be up for it. It’s going to be another difficult day,” said Flynn.
“We have gone from being a brilliant team to a mediocre one at the moment, although I’d be much more concerned if we were being played off the park and not creating chances. We need to cut out errors and take our chances.
“The news about playing at Cardiff City Stadium has been well received by the players, but I told them they straight away there can be no excuses when we play on a surface like that. Will it give us an advantage?
“We’ll have to see if win them to gauge that. I’m just grateful to mark Jones, at Rodney Parade, Cardiff City and the EFL for allowing us to move two matches.”
DURING the Ashes series of 1981, a letter appeared in The Guardian newspaper wondering if the iconic England captain Mike Brearley was blessed with unearthly powers.
“On Friday,” the missive ran, “I watched J.M. Brearley directing his fieldsmen very carefully. He then looked up at the sun and made a gesture which seemed to indicate that it should move a little squarer. Who is this man?”
One of the great sports captains of all time, that’s who.
Brearley possessed the gift of bringing the best out of those around him.
He also had an astute tactical brain. And he was bold when he needed to be. In the legendary series of 40 years ago, Australia couldn’t live with him. The whole affair was to be written up as Ian Botham’s Ashes, but in his own unassuming way it was very much Brearley’s finest hour, too, with his leadership on a different level.
Richie Benaud reckoned fortune was important, if not everything, saying: “Captaincy is 90 percent luck and 10 percent skill. But don’t try it without that 10 percent.” Whatever it is, Alun Wyn Jones has it. It’s been pointed out that last week against England he took it upon himself to stop the opposition totem Billy Vunipola a number of times.
The No.8 is his side’s premier ball carrier and he had to be halted if Wales were to win. Jones made a point of seeing that was the case. Others followed his lead.
Leadership by example is what he’s about, but the law graduate is also an educated man who gets on the right side of referees and commands the respect of team-mates.
In his column for the BBC, Matt Dawson wrote this week: “I hear the England players and it is all cajoling and tapping people on the bum, telling them it is OK when they have just given away their 13th penalty.
“Then you look at Wales captain Alun Wyn Jones when something does not go right –he has this steely look about him.
“I was co-commentating with Wales flyhalf Rhys Patchell and he called it the ‘Alun Wyn stare’. Everybody knows if you make a mistake and he gives you one of those looks, you are never going to do it again.
“That does not exist within this England team. They are all best mates and loving every minute of being part of the England camp, but there is no friction.” Friction is in Jones’ DNA.
He can be contrary and feisty at times, because he isn’t in the game to win popularity contests.
But the man cares – he truly does. Naming him in his team of the week, Will Greenwood wrote in The Telegraph: “The bigger the game, the better the performance from Alun Wyn Jones. He was superb against
England and at one point I even thought he was refereeing the game as well as playing in it!”
His coach at the Ospreys, Toby Booth, is in no doubt about what he contributes as a skipper. Asked whether the Lions’ captaincy debate had now been put to bed, Booth said: “Last week’s Wales-England game was a good example (of what Jones brings).
“In the pressurised environment of international rugby, whether with the Lions or wherever, you want people who can deliver and at different levels – leadership, leading by example, performance.
“Alun Wyn Jones is someone who delivers on all of those fronts consistently and has done for a very long time.”
Jones’ contract with the Ospreys and the Welsh Rugby Union is due to end at the close of the season and the hope will be that the renewal process will prove smooth and quick.
“He wants to get the Six Nations out of the way,” said Booth. “I’m sure those conversations are being had, essentially with Wales. We’re obviously inputting into that. We’ll see after the Six Nations where that goes.
“He’s a quality player and a quality individual we’re very proud to see him perform as well as he does for Wales.
“And he’s desperate to play some more for the Ospreys as well.
“So it’s a win-win for everybody.”
If the Lions make him captain, it will be win-win for them, too.