I noticed an article floating around various places yesterday, it turns out that @lennon wrote a piece about the Grimsby game and I thought I would share it with the community.

Please do have a read - Here

interesting, its a shame he did not think to post it in our blog section i am sure more notice it.

Very well written and on the ball tactically. Gets my thumbs up! 

I think it's refreshing to see, I really would like to encourage Lennon to keep writing - he's got a genuine talent for it and perhaps he will visit PON in the process to share his pieces.

Personally I just hope he continues, as it's a shame to see someone good come along and then it stops.

Good Luck to him.

That's a smashing piece and a good insight into what happened on Saturday. Enjoyed reading it. Hope there's more to come!

 

If I may offer some advice, in a couple of places the author could let the prose flow a bit more, even if that means making the text a bit simpler in places. For instance, "non-coincidentally" near the end would have read better as "It wasn't a coincidence that ...". But it's a good piece and the author has a distinctive style, which is good to see 

I like it... and whoever this young man is... he needs encouraging...

Edited July 27, 201510 yr by notts-joe
I'll explain why PTID

Excellent piece @lennon,I really enjoyed reading this.How about some more for PoN.

He has a future within writing if he chooses, if does not go the lone ranger he could go far.

Excellent piece imo. We need to get him nailed down on a contract here at PoN. Offer him a regular slot etc...with mentions in the PONCast to bring readers in.

Excellent piece imo. We need to get him nailed down on a contract here at PoN. Offer him a regular slot etc...with mentions in the PONCast to bring readers in.

I agree, look out @Joe Jones you could have some serious competition.

Why did we play Fillip Valencic as a full back? He is a striker right? The writing itself is very interesting read.

He had the making of a very good sports journalist, good luck to him. Very well crafted literature.

@AmericanPie - my feeling behind Moniz's thought process is that we needed to offer something new to the lineup; we needed to chop and change between defensive minded Hollis and the more dynamic Valencic. Valencic has the capability to play as a wing player, as he's shown at his previous clubs. Although Valencic isn't a full back, it allowed Moniz to see how the game flowed with an overlapping, supportive full back, and I feel as though the whole game was about Moniz finding the equilibrium between what he wants in terms of "total football" and what he can get away with. With De Silva being marked tightly throughout the game and not having an inch of space, having Valencic offering overlapping runs against a fatigued defence offered a new outlook on our side. This game was very intelligently played by Moniz, as he saw what happens when you 1) play a too defensive minded player in LB, and 2) play a too attacking minded player at LB. Being able to look at both allowed him to analyse what his choices are in a match if things aren't going our way, and although Valencic put in a decent shift (in my opinion), we could still see our defence crumbling at certain points. This also means that should we be chasing a match, Moniz might think "Valencic wouldn't be bad choice here, might be vulnerable on the counter but not too bad", or if we want to hold on to a lead he might've picked Hollis to play in LB - all experimentation.

 

@DangerousSausage - This seems like a crime I'm a regular offender of, and looking back at things I completely see where you're coming from. In this write-up I had lots of different ideas concurrently popping into my head and my instant thought was to just get it onto paper - my proof read wasn't looking at the finer detail as such, I was just kind of trying to make sure I had all my thoughts down.

 

Can I also just say that I'm really happy and somewhat stoked with the response I've had - I've never even given writing a thought, it's always just been something I've had fun doing in English, I guess .

Can I also just say that I'm really happy and somewhat stoked with the response I've had - I've never even given writing a thought, it's always just been something I've had fun doing in English, I guess .

I believe @notts-joe is seeking contributors, as an exile I think you could do well and just think of how your informative articles could give other fans a vision into what is happening.

Well done @lennon.

Great article which portrays the exact same thoughts I have. I can only be optimistic about the season ahead