Linfield 0 Coleraine 3: Post Match Show

Mo Brown hosts today's Post Match Show and is joined by Haydn Milligan, Dean Watson and David Graham to discuss Linfield 0 Coleraine 3 at Windsor Park.

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:17

Evening folks, welcome to the Windsor Way where the pod team here has taken a wee bit of inspiration from David Haley. Made a few changes to our starting lineup today. At the back, we've got Hayden Graham, ever dependable with all the stats and everything to do. Midfield back from a lone spell, including a trip to the Far East. We've got Dean Watson, commanding the troops, the Colonel of the side, David Graham, and then myself kicking the doors off the hinges up front, Morris Brown. Today we've seen a Joel Cooper inspired performance. It's seen Lindfield go down 3-0 to his current employer's coloring. Dean, what do you make of that?

SPEAKER_03 0:55

It's a hard one to summarise, really. When you're looking at the changes that you spoke about with the team, you have a few young and experienced players playing there. You look at the size difference in them, the fitness, the physical strength in them. And add to that, that we have nothing really to play for. Cole Rain still have a chance for the league, so they just obviously wanted it more than us, fought for every ball, moved the ball faster. Credit to them, they have information of like at one stage I was looking at was a 2-2-4-2 where their wing backs, Ives and Wade were super hamwired up the pitch. So it was very hard for especially inexperienced players to defend against that. That being said, some silly mistakes for the goals, I think, stood off. Not going to name individual players today because it's not for the young players in the team. But there was people just standing off the first goal, but it was just a walkthrough. Just walk through. Did we create any chances? Not really. To be honest with you, it's a tough one. And again, standing here, we don't really want to criticise. A couple of positives again. Sam Taylor. I like him on the ball, thought he was really creative. I would have loved to have seen him switch him over to the left-hand side actually, because when they had the two two four-two with a fullback so high up, there was so much space at their sort of their right back position, if you want. And I thought he would have been the one to exploit that because there was no one really there. There was no one really in that position, and I think he could have changed it. But all in all, bad dead to us.

SPEAKER_02 2:28

Hayden, is the Jamie Mulgrew of the Windsor Way podcast? Um when was the last time you actually seen it as bad two weeks in a row?

SPEAKER_00 2:39

You know, 3-0. She'd probably have been a 6-0 without David Walsh. Could have been 8 or 9-0 if uh Cooper had scored the goals he normally would score. Um actually, I thought it was more entertaining than it was last week. I thought it was uh I think the guys that were on, I think, did actually try. But you know, the young players could be coming in and playing in a slightly different position, you know, centre midfield rather than right midfield or left midfield or whatever. And there was a lot of nice interplay and nice touches, but then it just broke down up front. And I'm just wondering, you know, will we see any more goals scored for the Linfield at uh in this season at Windsor Park?

SPEAKER_02 3:26

I think we definitely need to see one in a playoff final. Well, it may not be here. Yeah, may not be here. David, before we started, you obviously uh brought up the subject of a rebuild. Please try and elaborate.

SPEAKER_01 3:40

Yes. Uh look, I think on the game, Corey and were bigger, stronger, faster, fitter, technically, better across the pitch, looked hungrier, which in reality they should be in many ways, because they're still in another league statistically, anyway. Um I think what I said, DMO4 come on. I hope it's not, but it feels like a sign of things to come in the future. Um, you know, we are going to have to bleed those young boys. I thought that John Graham showed glimpses today again, but I think he was he was pinned back because of how high their full backs played, wing backs, whatever you want to call them. So he didn't get forward as as I think he can. We've seen him do. But I mean, even Harry Allen, who was outmuscled at times, technically there is a there is a really good player in there, as there is with his older brother. And I think we have you know we have no choice but to get behind support these young lads, where if I'm honest, looking at the team that we can put out our strongest team. Beyond that, I don't know where we're getting any more players if it's not from the Academy, because if we're not going into the transfer window, as the the chairman has said, we're either going to have to get loans, uh Bosmans, or bleed the young players. And for me, I think we'd all agree I would rather bleed the young players was A, you might find another Trey Hume, or B, if nothing else, you find some of the players 250 games for Linfield, well all the better. But I mean, in reality, Korean probably won't win the league this year, but I think they're favourites for next year, as far as I can see, because that that's a hell of a squad, hell of depth, um, and certainly in fairness to Higgins, he seems to have them really well drilled. And in reality, Higgins made a uh Hayden made a good point. It was harder for Matthew Schlit Chevlin to miss in the first half, and harder for Joel Cooper to miss in the second half than score, and they actually uh they actually really helped us. And actually, looking at it, one thing that Coreyan have probably put themselves in position now, they can afford to lose maybe one or one nil next week and still end up second, which correct me if I'm wrong, is good for us because if they end up second it then means that if they then win the Irish Cup, the Glenns get into Europe and we would in theory have a home playoff. But let's not that's there's a podcast on that, but yeah, I think that's a good thing, is the point I'm making.

SPEAKER_02 5:57

Yeah, I I would agree there. I think a permitation for us is that um Dunganon winning the Irish Cup's a bad thing either way. Dean, um on young Harry Allen, we've mentioned it already. It seems to be men against boys out there today. Coloring just looked so physically strong from your coaching perspective. How do you get somebody so slight to compete against men?

SPEAKER_03 6:21

Yeah, I to be honest with with you, I was actually impressed with him today. Um on the ball, when he got the ball, he wasn't pushed off it, he wasn't shrugged off it. He was able to turn and get away from players. You know, he's got that technical abilities obviously there through the academy, and his coaching's done a good job with him. Um the problem is I'm trying to win the ball back, essentially. But you need to find a place for him in the team. But it can't be a team that I think he had touched on it last week. You want him in a team there where you have ten seniors around him, you don't want him in a team where you've only got maybe six, six seniors, and they're only sort of started the last couple of years as well themselves. So he has a place in the team. But I think ultimately it's up to him to find the spaces and get get himself on the ball. But he looks like a confident enough kid, and he's definitely capable enough. I I was impressed with him today, and as David said that that's the type of ones that I want to see getting into the team.

SPEAKER_01 7:03

The one point I think needs to be made here is taking the focus away from the young lads for a second. Actually, when our more senior players were on, uh it it was still a mismatch physically, in my view. They still look fit fitter, bigger, stronger. And that to me goes back to the question: yes, they've recruited very well, and they can't because they've thrown a lot of money around, but also that comes down to how the full-time model is implemented on a daily basis. So the point I'm making here is players who are now what into their third, fourth full-time season should be um at a par with other players who have been in that same cycle. I don't think we are, I think we are fourth, and one of the reasons is because physically teams are ahead of us, both in terms of the strength and the conditioning, and also the ability to get players back fitter, quicker, because the medical infrastructure is there. And I know I mention this almost every week, but that is conservation and is visually you know we can we can set it visually over ninety minutes.

SPEAKER_02 8:03

Hayden, Christopher Morrison, referee, I thought was appalling today. Uh truly, truly appalling. Some glaringly obvious mistakes. Uh, we also had a crazy situation that just after cold rain went 3-0 up, there was eight substitutions. Klagen went down with a pulled hamstring, and we still had no injury time whatsoever. Yeah, I mean, what was going on there?

SPEAKER_00 8:28

Well, I I think he forgot his cards today. I really did because there were several things where people were pulled back and and clear files, and he just ignored them as like, well, play on, or or the ball would go out and play and say, I'm I'm not really fussed about them. Um yes, that was a bit strange. You you can understand it if it is that sort of score, and you think, well, Linfeed are not going to score three or four goals to win the game at this late stage. But even so, I think you've got to acknowledge the fact that there were substitutions and there were injuries and so on. Because he played two minutes, I think it one minute, I think it was in the in the first half. So, yeah, uh I don't know. He uh in that case he seems to be a rule under himself. Maybe he's gone out tonight somewhere and he needs to get out away. That's that's probably not a bad shout.

SPEAKER_03 9:14

Can I I'd say again on that one, yeah, you're you're right. See, right before the first goal, um Young High Allen put a good cross in, and for me, there was a big chance of a penalty, a big penalty claim. And a minute later, we're one-nil down. So that that has a part to play, and then another part on that, it's good to touch on the referee. You know, no one's allowed in the the world of football to say anything with referees. But um Core Rainer going for the league. Everyone's tight for goal difference there. They have a they uh if I if I was Higgins, I would not be happy with that, no, no extra time there too, because they need the goals. So where where does the referee? Well, they should have scored more before that. Yeah, yeah, but we're we're 3-0 down and worse, even saying that's a strange call for uh a professional referee to make you know he's compared to do the job with her.

SPEAKER_02 9:57

Well we'll we'll wrap up there on a disappointing performance. We've got another wee uh slight piece of disappointing news to cover, obviously. Um Jason and announced last week that the four um club members who were going for a re-election or election to the board were going to feature on a podcast in the next coming weeks. Unfortunately that's not gonna be the case. Um I wasn't privy to those emails. I'm sure our podcast host, Mr. Burke, will pass that on at a later date. David, your thoughts on that?

SPEAKER_01 10:25

Well, look, I think if I put my sort of public relations and communications hat on. I think in politics, like perception in many ways is much more important than reality because people win or lose elections in the political world because of how they are viewed or how their party is viewed. So in many ways, it's not actually about it's not a results-based game a lot of the time. So when someone comes to your door next year for an election says, Oh, we've done this, that, and the other, the economy and this, that and the other with education, quite frankly, setting aside even you know the green and orange nature of our politics, you know, people make a sweeping judgment on I like him or her based on their gut. So the perception is, and correct me if I'm wrong, listeners, you can you can feed into this, there is a perception that there is a a hierarchy at Linfield, and and it's probably in and mostly driven by the fact that we have got uh seven to eight unelected trustees who essentially elect each other. So you can't get into that camp unless the other seven vote you on, choose you. So therefore, we have we have a sort of a democracy with within. Therefore, our thought process was, and the Linfield board won't see this, but our thought process was right. There's a view that Linfield's a closed shop, there's a view that Linfield board don't like to be criticized. Um Stephen Looney described it as a murder where essentially you know you don't talk about family business in public. Now, you know, we this is not the Godfather. We are talking about a democratically elected board, or at least some democratically elected board by members who serve the club, but for whatever reason the club have decided to pull the shutters down. So therefore, the perception is Linfield's a closed shop, they don't want to be criticised, they fear criticism. Now, my information is that there is a sense within the board that there has been feedback from members that the likes of the chairman is going on to ask questions of which yes, Linfield supporters can hear, but so can Cliffinville, Glenn Torrent supporters, whatever, and it may leave us slightly open to criticism. Now, for me, I think that's quite a soft excuse in my view. But that then continues the perception that if you aren't a member, so therefore the only time members get to speak to the board is at an AGM. But actually, if you're not a member, we don't have to speak to you at at all. But in reality, we've got let's say 500 members, so uh give or take. So that would suggest that there's at least looking at our attendance is four times more non-members than there is members. So there's a lot of people here season ticket holders that aren't members. So it creates this perception of actually we're not going to talk to you. Pretty much if you don't like it, well, we decide who speaks and who doesn't. So what I am going to suggest is that if the Linfield Board want to try to break perception, why don't they send on someone else who isn't the chairman prior to the AGM? Because we have already asked for Jack Grundley to come on to discuss football matters because he is the head of the team committee. We've asked Richard Johnson to come on because he is the head of finance, and our biggest concern of support is what we've seen over the last 90 minutes in the pitch and the current state of our financial sustainability. So for me, you know, David Healy, I have nothing but time for respect for. David Healy will always front up and say, I pick the team, I pick who we recruit, etc. etc. But if in that case, then let's just abolish the team committee and that's basically put all the pressure on the manager and William McKillone, and if it goes wrong, let's sack him and get someone else in. Because what then is the nature of the team committee? So, in a nutshell, I'm going to sum it up. Um we have actually tried to help the Linfield board here. We've actually tried to help members. I applaud the four members who were prepared to come on, and let's make no mistake about it. You know, Stephen Dixon has had a very difficult time personally, uh and we all share the sympathy and the passing of his wife. Uh put Stephen a lot of challenges where we had the Muni sponsorship before Christmas. So, you know, you've now got people running around saying, Oh, there might be a dark cloud over Stephen's name. Well, you know, if that's the briefings being sent out, let's have that conversation with Stephen. Allow him to put forward his reasons rather than this situation where you know you're going in, you try to make a speech, what are you, five minutes or something? As soon as the five minutes are up, you get a you know, a bell and you have to sit down. So let's let's all let's all be big about this. Linfield has been here since 1886. It's bigger than anyone sitting around the boardroom, it's bigger than any of us sitting around this table talking about the podcast. Let's all let's all actually realise we all want Linfield to win every single trophy. We may have differing views as to how they do it, but that that's our outcome. We're not trying to out to get anyone here. We're trying to do what's best for our club. And my view and my final shot is today we are forced in the league because we have let others get ahead of us. If this continues, there is a danger that we become another crusader. Big club with plenty of stories about the past, but actually kicking about in the latter part of the league. Man United have shown, doesn't matter who you are, Leicester won the league ten years ago, they've now been relegated to the League one today. You're only as good as your last game, you're only as good as your last season. So let's all be grown up about it here. Doesn't matter if you wear a suit and tie, or it doesn't matter you come in a pair of tracks with bottoms and a scarf. We all support Linfield, let's all be sensible and pull through together.

SPEAKER_02 15:58

I think back a year ago, um whenever one of the board actually essentially ran a fantastic campaign on social media and got up and around the stance, and it'd be great to hear from him, obviously, after the AGM, you know he's pretty safe at this moment in time. So that was my thinking behind it, obviously, and trying to give people more exposure. Hayden, I will finish with you today. Um as a member, how would you feel how do you feel getting only to hear five minutes of the next few years of potential leadership around the club? And would you embrace anybody who is seeking re-election? They obviously speak a wee bit more publicly.

SPEAKER_00 16:32

Yeah, it is disappointing, I suppose, because as I said previously, you know, the AGM, you've got all the official business that you have to go through in the presentation of the accounts and the analysis of that and so on. Um and it doesn't leave much room for people to present. And not everyone is very good at standing up in front of a large crowd of people and talking through something. Um that needs practice and it needs natural ability to be able to do that. So it would be very it would have been very useful to hear from the four people, giving them more time to put their views. And I'm just wondering what would have happened if it was a member who wasn't currently a board member or a committee member, and the committee said, No, you're not allowed to go on the podcast. What would have happened then? I'm just wondering.

SPEAKER_02 17:23

Well, I'm sure the discussions will keep on going, rubbling on around that. End of the AGM and post. Just before we close off today, um, we'd just like to wish our imperious leader, Mr. Burke, all the best, and his partner as Baby Burke is due, hopefully within the next couple of days, but certainly without doubt within the next week. Jason, we're thinking of you, my friend, and all the very best of you, your partner in the family. And as ever, fortune favors are brave.