LONG THROWS by Graham Jones

Semi regular contributor Graham Jones is annoyed.  And rather than aim a kick at his cat, he has put digits to keyboard and shared his annoyance with us.  We now share it with you. 

Don't forget, if something at KTFC is getting your goat (as if!) you too have the option of tapping out an angry article which we will happily host for literally dozens of fellow fans to see.

Over to you, Graham - 

"Anyone of a certain age will probably remember Rory Delap, the first player to become well-known for having a long throw-in. He of course was copied for a time, but I do not recall the use of the tactic of launching the ball into the penalty area becoming a constant tool in a manager’s armoury. Later, we had our own expert in the exotically named Exodus Geohaghon, who disappointingly failed to recreate his expertise in the recent legends match.

This attacking option is still sometimes used by many teams, even in the top divisions, but is sometimes disapproved of by other managers. This is something I have never quite understood as it gives a team a fairly simple chance to put the ball into a potentially dangerous area. You would not expect every corner to be a short corner so why not treat throw-ins in the same way. I have never been keen on short corners simply because they often don’t lead to the ball causing issues for defenders. In fact, the only goal that I can remember seeing that came from a short corner was when the opposition won the ball after a short pass and then broke away and scored!

This slight rant has been inspired by my current state of frustration when the Poppies. Well, one of them anyway. I don’t know when this constant use of this boring, ineffective tactic started, but it seems as if virtually every throw-in that we have had in the last 4 or so years, and within 30 yards of the penalty area, has meant that currently Rhys Sharpe takes a long throw. This happens even if he has to run 50 yards from the opposite side of the pitch before he takes the unsuccessful throw. The way that referees are seemingly keen to get a claim in for overtime with the amount of added time now being added, it might even happen soon that, if we ever happen to be winning again when near the end of a game, 

Sharpe could be penalised for time-wasting. This would be appropriate as most of our throws are a waste of time. The throws very rarely lead to goals, in fact, they very rarely even lead to a Kettering player heading the ball first. It is easy to wonder whether they are practised in training, given the small amount of time available. At best, the ball might drop in the 6-yard box and cause panic and confusion leading to a melee, as Cookie describes it in his commentaries, but even that usually just leads to a defender booting it clear.

This of course can happen quite a few times in a game as the vast majority of throws-in lead to this tactic. This is certainly not just down to our current manager as the last 3 or 4 managers have all employed this method. I can only assume Paul Cox stuck some diagrams on the wall and they haven’t been taken down yet."

"Back a bit.  A bit more.  A bit more.


A bit more....."