Match preview: Russell Vale vs. Coastal Hogs

The Coastal Hogs travel to Russell Vale on Saturday for a 3pm meeting with the team we edged in a pre-season trial. RV were relegated from division one last season and have started this season with a first round victory and a 1-1 draw with Fernhill, a team which finished below us last season.
We are all aware of the speed of their number 15 and the lack of it in their back division shown during the trial. The forward's shot didn't match his pace, especially when he was forced out into wide areas. The keeper made some good saves but they had moments of real confusion at the back and he did help Matt's winning goal into the bottom corner. We will need to start better than we did in the 6-2 win last week. At training this week we looked at stringing some passes together and getting the ball out to the flanks - let's keep it calm throughout the team. We've shown that if we go a goal down we have the firepower and scoring options to get right back into the game. In a trial and opening game we have now had five different scorers, and that's without Mark, Tony or Kevan getting on the scoresheet yet. Whatever the opening 15 minutes throws at us this week, let's keep our calm, keep the yelling constructive and keep on task.
We have four players missing from the 19 - John, Gary J, Shane and Michael. This leaves us with 14 outfield players to rotate.
The plan (and we all know these can change!) is to have two divisions of seven players with five on at one time from each division.
In the defensive division, along with Hector in goal, we have PC, GD, DJ, DD, GH, GP and Ian, dropping back from the (attacking) midfield this week. These seven will cover the duties of sweeper/stopper, fullbacks and a defensive midfielder, responsible for giving us a presence in the midfield "hole" which we lacked in the trial game. I see that being a job for Ian, GP (as he did against Uni) or DD to fill at various times.
Dave should run this group during the game, knowing where everyone is and should be, organising and keeping it ticking over.
In the front division we have seven to cover the five positions of 2x forwards, right mid, left mid, attacking mid. They will be TH, AR, KS, MS, SI, MC and FR. Tony will look after this division. Speed breaking forwards, cover back by the midfielders into that hole, good use of width and smart use of substitutions should be the key here.
As before, this is all up for discussion. Last week the plan changed based on the blog discussion and the same might happen again.